The cryptocurrency world is undergoing change, and a shift is noticeable among non-wholecoiners—those who’ve not quite reached the 1 Bitcoin mark.
Entities and individual holders of Bitcoin less than 1 BTC have been offloading it. Meanwhile, it seems that the playing field—the market cap landscape—is becoming less retail and more institutional. This retail-to-institutional evolution isn’t something new, as it’s something we’ve seen before. The enthusiasm seen in late 2020 with the influx of retail investors has now subsided, and Bitcoin remains less of an everyday topic. Despite the recent waning enthusiasm, these larger institutional players are still in acquisition mode, amassing enormous amounts of Bitcoin.
A Familiar Pattern Emerges in the Current Cycle
The market behaves in a certain way with non-wholecoiners, and it’s a way we’ve seen before. In the last cycle, when Bitcoin was hitting its all-time high of $40,000, we were watching a similar trend where smaller holders were offloading their BTC. At that time, non-wholecoiners (or, as I like to call them, “the not-so-elite club” of Bitcoin holders) sold off not an insignificant amount of Bitcoin (roughly 0.07 million, if you’re counting). Of course, this produced a wave of market activity that the smooth operators in the Bitcoin price discovery mechanism would rather avoid. In the next section, we’ll look at why non-wholecoiners feel compelled to sell when they do.
Fast forward to today, and this behavior seems to be repeating itself. As Bitcoin climbs once again, those who own less than 1 BTC are increasingly liquidating their holdings. These smaller holders appear to be responding to Bitcoin’s price surges by either cashing out for profits or becoming more risk-averse. However, it is important to note that this trend does not necessarily signal a decline in overall market confidence. In fact, despite the offloading of Bitcoin by these retail investors, Bitcoin holdings from retail users have actually grown by 37% since 2020. Currently, retail investors collectively hold around 1.75 million BTC, a significant increase from previous years.
Non-Wholecoiners show their paper hands
As companies and governments continue to accumulate #Bitcoin, non-wholecoiners holding less than 1 $BTC are gradually reducing their holdings, mirroring the trend seen in late 2020.
In the previous cycle, when $BTC surged to $40K,… pic.twitter.com/J77Hf4YHYu
— CryptoRank.io (@CryptoRank_io) March 14, 2025
Institutional Accumulation Continues to Drive Market Dynamics
Institutional investors and large financial players are still bullish on bitcoin, and they keep adding to their positions. Meanwhile, smaller bitcoin holders are now reducing their exposure. Entities both public and private are coming to see bitcoin as more than just a store of value: they’re increasingly viewing it as an inflation-hedge and a way to navigate uncertain economic waters. The latest manifestation of this bitcoin bull market? According to some analysts, it’s the bitcoin ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) that have been roaring out of the gate.
New data emphasize the meaningful net outflows from Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). An estimated $153.11 million in losses over the past few months can be attributed to a total outflow of 1,818 BTC from these funds. The major force behind these outflows is a handful of large institutional players. Fidelity, for example, has seen an outflow of 939 BTC, valued at about $79.05 million. Despite this, however, the company still has in its custody a very impressive 194,270 BTC. This amounts to an approximate $16.36 billion commitment to holding Bitcoin.
Mar 14 Update:
10 #Bitcoin ETFs
NetFlow: -1,818 $BTC(-$153.11M)🔴#Fidelity outflows 939 $BTC($79.05M) and currently holds 194,270 $BTC($16.36B).9 #Ethereum ETFs
NetFlow: -17,187 $ETH(-$33.24M)🔴#iShares(Blackrock) outflows 8,175 $ETH($15.81M) and currently holds 1,248,688… pic.twitter.com/RNfE43PmpU— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 14, 2025
The trend of Bitcoin institutional investment remains undoubted. Companies and investment firms continue to buy into Bitcoin, not only as an asset for capital appreciation but as a hedge against economic turmoil and inflationary pressures. This consistent demand from much larger players helps support the much broader Bitcoin ecosystem and could be the principal driver behind its long-term growth.
Bitcoin’s Role in the Broader Financial Landscape
Retail and institutional investors interact in complex ways, and the cryptocurrency Bitcoin is a prime example of this. We see that most of the early adopters of Bitcoin weren’t wholecoiners; they were just like you, me, and our listeners, holding a fraction of a Bitcoin (or less). Many of these non-wholecoiners have (or are in the process of) parting ways with the asset, seemingly due to the high levels of volatility that Bitcoin has exhibited over the past year.
Now, in stark contrast, institutional buyers are embracing Bitcoin and taking a longer-term view, and this is super important to understand.
Although smaller retail investors might withdraw from the market or cash in their profits, Bitcoin looks as if it’s building an uptrend—maybe even a bull market. Institutions and governments that seem to have little interest in ever selling are now holding onto remarkable amounts of BTC. At the same time, this is not a retail-driven market. Even if the retail side of the Bitcoin market falls, it hardly seems as if the Bitcoin price is in decadence.
To conclude, Bitcoin’s marketplace is in a state of constant flux, shaped by the actions of retail and institutional investors alike. The non-wholecoiners’ tendency to sell off their holdings during market rallies is a trend that continues to emerge, one that, in many ways, seems to have been modeled off of the pattern we witnessed in late 2020. Of course, as we know, the past is not always prologue. That said, after you take a snapshot of the Bitcoin price action that occurred last week (i.e., the week of March 1, 2021) and overlay it with the price action that occurred in the last week of February 2021, the beginning of March 2021, and the first half of the second week of March 2021.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.
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