At $96K, Nearly All Recent Bitcoin Investors Are Underwater—Here’s Why It Matters
Bitcoin's brutal correction leaves 99% of buyers from the past 155 days holding bags. The $96K price tag now looks more like a warning sign than a milestone.
Welcome to crypto's version of 'buy high, regret later.'
Key takeaway: Even digital gold gets heavy when you buy at the top. But history shows these dips often separate weak hands from true believers.
One hedge fund manager quipped: 'Traders treating BTC like a meme stock deserve the red candles.'
With a BTC price at $96K, 99% of recent buyers are in the red
BTC price continues to slide but narrative is winning the day
Nearly two weeks of selling pressure on the BTC price have left traders and Twitter prophets alike picking through the debris for signs of life. As Bloomberg host Joe Weisenthal bemoaned:
“Bitcoin has been down for 12 straight days.”
Even if the BTC price action feels less like a “chop” and more like bearish ballet, Bitcoin’s infamous correlation with Nasdaq hasn’t helped matters. Just ask the market makers at Wintermute, who point to tech’s slide as an anchor on the digital gold narrative. When those indices tumble, bitcoin still stubbornly follows.
Still, if you look hard enough, there are always reasons to smile. This week, Bitcoin made its cameo in a New Yorker cartoon, showing that cultural currency sometimes trumps price charts.
So, if you bought the top, you can buy a chuckle as well. As Human Rights Foundation’s Alex Gladstein pointed out in reply to Weisenthal, the BTC price may be down, but:
“The New Yorker cartoon today is about Bitcoin replacing fiat so we’re up.”
Institutions are watching (and accumulating more)
Still, the flows on Wall Street tell a more intriguing story. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley revealed that a “$1 trillion AUM bank” invited his team to brief advisors on Bitcoin, turning what many see as a “slowdown” into acceleration. And he’s not alone.
Harvard’s ETF buying spree [LINK HARVARD ARTICLE] places its Bitcoin IBIT exposure as its largest position, as major universities and sovereign wealth funds tiptoe into spot Bitcoin via regulated vehicles.
Other institutions have joined the parade, undeterred by the relentless outflows and sinking prices. The UAE’s sovereign wealth fund (Al Warda) has also increased its Bitcoin ETF exposure by 230% since June 2025 and now holds 7.9 million shares valued at $517 million, as confirmed by recent filings and crypto market reports.
Chopsolidation: What’s behind the sell pressure?
If you’re wondering why rallies fizzle and bears keep feasting, on-chain analyst Checkmate spells it out: the sell-side pressure is coming directly from spot Bitcoin holders.
“This has been the case the entire cycle so far. Took a while for folks to recognise it, but sell-side by existing holders has been the primary reason for these maddeningly long periods of chopsolidation. Folks like to blame options, or manipulation, but its just exiting HODLers.”
One thing’s for sure, in markets like this, narrative is as much an asset as the coins themselves. While the BTC price is down, cartoon appearances and institutional briefings serve to remind us that volatility and visibility often go hand in hand. And sometimes, a bear market is just a comic set-up for the next punchline.
