Corporations are returning Bitcoin to the retail investors

Market overview

Over the past 24 hours, the crypto market has fallen by 2% to $2.18T, once again failing to establish a firm upward trend. Fundamental and psychological pressure on the market is being exerted by the shift towards AI among those companies which, in their desire to be at the forefront, had previously championed cryptocurrencies, from holders led by Strategy to miners such as MARA. Although there are buyers, it is clear that institutional investors are currently focused on selling the leading cryptocurrency to build up liquidity or switch to AI. At the start of the week, the cryptocurrency market was under widespread pressure, with the ratio of rising to falling coins at approximately 1:10. Gainers include Internet Computer (+4.6%), Chainlink (+2.5%) and Cosmos (+1.2%). The three worst-performing among the most liquid coins are Cardano (-5%), Zcash (-4.2%) and Aave (-4.1%).

Bitcoin lost 2%, retreating to $64K. The price is trading just above the 50-day moving average, which has been moving almost horizontally for the past three weeks. This is clear evidence of a delicate balance of power, within which a transfer of value from businesses to investors is likely taking place. For the stock market, this often leads to losses for the latter. In cryptocurrencies, the opposite has historically been the case: retail investors created the hype, and at a certain point, it was beneficial for corporations’ image to join the trend. Now, corporations are keen to focus on other areas, which risks accelerating the liquidation of BTC positions in the coming weeks, but in the long term, it returns cryptocurrencies to their ideological roots. 

News background

Bitcoin has already approached the break-even point for short-term holders, according to analyst Darkfost. He states that the asset must offer a return that is attractive enough to encourage investors to hold their positions or enter the market, but not so high as to discourage them.

Cryptocurrency investment firm Grayscale has withdrawn its registration applications for ETFs based on Cardano, Hedera and Polkadot. Grayscale is still awaiting full approval for exchange-traded products based on Bittensor, Aave, BNB, NEAR and Zcash.

In the first half of the year, the miner MARA sold 23,093 BTC for approximately $1.6 billion. The proceeds were used to fund operations, support growth and manage liquidity.

Strategy sold 1,690 BTC ($108.6 million) last week. The proceeds were used to repurchase STRC preference shares. The dollar reserve increased by $650 million to $4.65 billion through the sale of MSTR shares. Strategy’s reserves fell to 840,447 BTC. Over the past six weeks, Strategy has sold a total of 6,916 BTC for $429.35 million.

Sweden’s H100 Group has increased its Bitcoin reserves to 3,506 BTC after completing the previously announced acquisition of NSD and receiving an additional 2,455.37 BTC.  

Summary: Corporations are moving away from Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies towards AI, swapping one high-profile topic for another. But this brings cryptocurrency back to its ideological roots.