According to an analyst, sustained selling pressure from long-term Bitcoin holders has stalled the asset’s price growth—despite increased interest from institutions and corporations.
“People are asking why Bitcoin has remained stuck around $100K, even with the surge in institutional FOMO,” said Charles Edwards, founder of Capriole Investments, on Sunday.
Edwards explained that the stagnation is largely due to early Bitcoin adopters—known as “OGs”—who have been offloading their holdings onto Wall Street since the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024.
He also shared a chart illustrating a sharp rise in six-month Bitcoin holders, highlighting a new wave of BTC treasury investors entering the space.
“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 momentum loop
Edwards predicted that Bitcoin treasury companies would ignite “a powerful flywheel of buying momentum,” shifting focus away from the ETF narrative.
“We’re clearly in the thick of it now, with a wave of copycat entrants flooding the market,” he noted.
Just last week, several new corporate investors jumped in, including real estate heavyweight Cardone Capital; Anthony Pompliano’s ProCap, which has plans to go public; mineral exploration firm Panther Metals; and Norwegian deep-sea mining company Green Minerals.
Short-term profit taking
Jeff Mei, COO of the BTSE crypto exchange, told Cointelegraph that in the short term, traders are locking in profits ahead of the July 9 tariff deadline, anticipating that key trade issues may remain unresolved.
“Investors are hedging against a potential market downturn if trade negotiations break down,” he said, noting that a growing number of publicly listed companies are now incorporating Bitcoin into their treasury strategies.
“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 are in a holding pattern, awaiting key U.S. macroeconomic data and policy updates expected this week.
“Progress on trade negotiations ahead of the reciprocal tariff deadline, along with developments on Trump’s budget bill, are major risk factors that need to be resolved before the bullish momentum can continue,” he said, warning that any unexpected news “could spark a sell-off.”
Sideways trading continues
Bitcoin has remained mostly range-bound since surpassing the six-figure mark for the second time this year in early May, fluctuating between $102,000 and $110,000 with only a few brief deviations outside that band.
Despite the lack of significant price movement, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have attracted over $3.2 billion in inflows over the past two weeks—without a single day of outflows. At the same time, the number of companies adding Bitcoin to their treasuries continues to climb steadily.
As of Monday, BTC was up 1.2% on the day and had touched resistance at $108,750—its highest level in two weeks—though it had yet to break through that ceiling at the time of writing.
