Long-term holder selling pressure has stunted the growth of Bitcoin’s price, despite recent moves from institutions and corporations to buy the asset, according to an analyst.
“People are wondering why Bitcoin has been stuck at $100K so long, despite the institutional FOMO,” said Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards on Sunday.
He added that this is largely due to Bitcoin (BTC) OGs — long-term holders — who have been “dumping on Wall Street” and “unloading their positions” since the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds launched in January 2024.
Edwards shared a chart showing Bitcoin holder growth rates, with the six-month holder cohort surging, representing the new wave of BTC treasury companies.
“The amount of BTC acquired in the last two months by this cohort has completely consumed all of the BTC unloaded by LTHs over the last 1.5 years.”
Bitcoin treasury flywheel
Edwards predicted that these Bitcoin treasury companies would create “a huge flywheel buying frenzy” and push the ETF narrative into the backseat.
“We have clearly entered the heat of that today, as many copy-cats have entered the market,” he said.
Related: Few Bitcoin treasury companies will survive ‘death spiral’: VC Report
Several new corporate investors emerged just last week, including real estate giant Cardone Capital; Anthony Pompliano’s venture firm ProCap, which plans to go public; mineral exploration company Panther Metals; and Norwegian deep-sea mining firm Green Minerals.
Short-term profit taking
Jeff Mei, chief operating officer at the BTSE crypto exchange, told Cointelegraph that in the short term, traders are taking profit ahead of the July 9 tariff deadline, as many expect core issues to remain unresolved.
“They’re hedging against a plunge in market prices in case trade talks go south,” he said, adding that more and more publicly listed companies are adding Bitcoin to their treasury operations.
“While it’ll take time for them to accumulate enough Bitcoin, we expect the market to stabilize over the next year as more long-term holders enter the market.”
Meanwhile, Han Xu, director of liquid fund investments at HashKey Capital, told Cointelegraph that investors and traders were waiting for US macroeconomic data reports and policy updates coming this week.
“Updates on trade deals ahead of the reciprocal tariff deadline, along with the progress of Trump’s budget bill, are both key risks that need to clear before a continuation of the bullish trend resumes,” he said, cautioning that any surprises “could trigger a sell-off.”
Sideways trading continues
Bitcoin prices have been largely range-bound since they broke above six figures for the second time this year in early May. The asset has oscillated between $102,000 and $110,000 with a couple of brief spikes and dips outside of that range.
Despite this market inactivity, spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States have seen more than $3.2 billion in inflows without an outflow day over the past fortnight. Meanwhile, the number of new Bitcoin treasury companies continues to increase weekly.
BTC was trading up 1.2% on the day and had tapped resistance at $108,750 on Monday, its highest level for two weeks, but had failed to break above it at the time of writing.
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