Early Bitcoin (BTC) whales have reportedly offloaded more than 500,000 BTC, worth about $50 billion at current rates, in the past year, an exit matched by institutional inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and corporate treasuries.
The churn, detailed in a recent Bloomberg piece, has kept the king cryptocurrency near its record highs while suppressing its more volatile nature, signaling a fundamental shift from speculative asset to institutional holding.
The Great Bitcoin Handover
According to Bloomberg, the BTC sales by early holders in the last year mirror net inflows into American spot BTC ETFs, indicating a near one-to-one handover. These sellers include miners, offshore funds, and anonymous wallets, many of whom accumulated their holdings when Bitcoin traded for mere hundreds.
Some are now reportedly offloading their BTC for stock-linked financing deals, effectively exiting the crypto market through “in-kind” transfers.
Meanwhile, institutional buyers, led by the ETFs, Michael Saylor’s Strategy, and a host of corporate imitators, are said to have accumulated nearly 900,000 BTC, pushing their combined holdings to 4.8 million BTC. This represents about one-quarter of the cryptocurrency’s 19.8 million circulating supply.
Interestingly, a recent CNBC report revealed that corporate treasuries have been amassing more Bitcoin than their ETF counterparts for three straight quarters.
Data from BitcoinTreasuries shows that Strategy alone holds 597,323 BTC worth over $65 billion, way more than the 527,648 BTC in the custody of governments around the world, but dwarfed by the 848,608 BTC collectively owned by public companies.
Volatility Vanishing
The Bitcoin sales in the past 12 months mark a dramatic powershift considering a study by Flipside Crypto estimated that five years ago, just 2% of anonymous accounts controlled 95% of Bitcoin.
As DRW’s Rob Strebel told Bloomberg, “Crypto is becoming less of an outlier,” adding that the reduced volatility is a reflection of BTC’s growing status as a stable, long-term asset class.
Strebel’s take on Bitcoin’s volatility wasn’t pulled out of thin air. Deribit’s BTC Volatility Index, which measures 30-day forward-looking annualized volatility expectations, has dropped to its lowest level in the last two years, potentially making Bitcoin “an attractive retirement asset,” as Arca CIO Jeff Dorman stated.
BTC has displayed this steadiness at the markets recently, with a narrow 24-hour range between $108,871 and $110,386. It was trading at $109,155 at the time of this writing, reflecting a 3.5% rise in the last 30 days and a smaller 1.5% improvement over the past week to edge the broader crypto market, which went up 1.4% in that period.
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