Institutions Are Gobbling Up BTC—So Why Isn’t the Price Skyrocketing? Bulls vs. Bears Face Off

Wall Street’s piling into Bitcoin like it’s a Black Friday sale—so where’s the moon mission? The bulls are loading up, but the price chart’s stuck in neutral. What gives?

The Institutional Stampede

Big money’s betting heavy on BTC, with hedge funds and corporate treasuries stacking sats like there’s no tomorrow. Yet the price action? Yawn. Classic crypto—defying logic since 2009.

The Liquidity Trap

Exchanges are swimming in BTC, but demand’s getting absorbed faster than a meme coin rug pull. Market makers are playing 4D chess while retail traders stare at sideways candles.

The Macro Headfake

Fed rate cuts, inflation data, ETF flows—the usual suspects are all here. But Bitcoin’s playing hard to get, because nothing says 'store of value' like ignoring fundamentals.

Wake us up when the leverage flushes out or the whales get bored. Until then? Enjoy the discount—or watch Goldman Sachs front-run you (again).

BTC Stalls Despite Institutional Demand

According to CryptoQuant, BTC purchases from U.S.-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and corporate treasuries belonging to firms like Strategy have declined this year compared to the period from November to December 2024.

ETF purchases have decreased from 86,000 BTC in early December to 71,000 BTC in mid-May, and are currently at 40,000 BTC. The trend represents a 53% decline over this period.

At the same time, Strategy’s acquisitions have also dropped from 171,000 BTC in December to 16,000 BTC currently. This shows a 90% plunge over the period.

Although institutional purchases and ETF flows have kept BTC above $100,000 for a while, further declines could slow price gains. This could be exacerbated by the fact that ETF and institutional buys represent a fraction of the overall BTC demand, which seems to be contracting.

At the market’s peak in December, ETF and institutional purchases represented 33% of total bitcoin demand growth. These entities purchased no more than 257,000 BTC out of the total 771,000 BTC. This indicated that the Bitcoin market had a bigger and unobservable demand coming from other sources.

Overall Demand is Contracting

Currently, the overall demand for BTC is contracting, having declined by 895,000 BTC over the last 30 days. This metric needs to expand for a sustainable price rally to occur. However, the demand level from institutions right now is not enough to trigger that expansion.

CryptoQuant stated that Bitcoin’s annual growth chart reflects how ETF and institutional purchases account for only a portion of demand. Apparent demand has also contracted by 857,000 BTC, significantly offsetting the expansion of ETF and institutional demand (377,000 BTC and 371,000 BTC, respectively).

“The bottom line is that ETFs and MSTR’s Bitcoin purchase, while overall positive for Bitcoin price gains, are not sufficient to drive prices to fresh all-time highs,” the market intelligence firm added.