Bulls vs. Bears: Institutions Pile Up BTC But Price Doesn’t go up, Why?

Over the last thirty days, many institutions have been loading up their bitcoin (BTC) bags. However, these purchases have had no major impact on the price of the leading digital asset. This has sparked concerns among market participants.

Many are wondering why BTC has been stuck within a tight range since it hit an all-time high (ATH) in late May.

A recent report by the market intelligence firm CryptoQuant revealed the reason for the weak price momentum despite persistent institutional demand, which analysts say is currently not enough.

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.