Recently, spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have faced a substantial setback, experiencing over $1.5 billion in outflows in just four days. Most notably, on December 19, these funds witnessed their largest-ever outflow, with $671.9 million exiting the market. This abrupt shift marked the end of a 15-day streak of inflows.
These outflows unfolded amidst a notable cryptocurrency market sell-off, causing the price of BTC to plummet from above $100,000 to below $93,000, although it did stage a recovery afterwards. The recent outflow data from Farside Investors indicates a significant trend; previous record outflows back in May were overshadowed this month, which saw more than $564 million leave the ETFs. The recent days alone accounted for additional exits of $277 million on December 20, $226.5 million on December 23, and $338.4 million on December 24.
Compounding this situation, MicroStrategy, a publicly listed business intelligence firm on Nasdaq, announced it had acquired another 5,262 BTC at an average price of $106,662 per coin. This hefty purchase totaled around $561 million, pushing MicroStrategy’s total bitcoin holdings past 400,000 BTC following an investment of $1.5 billion into the leading cryptocurrency. Their aggressive accumulation strategy has sparked interest among other corporations.
One such corporate player, Marathon Digital Holdings, a cryptocurrency mining firm, has accumulated 44,394 BTC, valuing approximately $4.1 billion, making it the second-largest corporate holder of bitcoin. Other miners and even Tesla have gradually added to their bitcoin reserves, leading to a total of 587,470 BTC held by publicly traded companies, worth an estimated $54.9 billion. This amount represents about 2.8% of the total supply of bitcoin.
This whirlwind of outflows and corporate accumulation demonstrates the fluctuating nature of the crypto market. Investors are left to ponder the future, perhaps sharing a mix of anxiety and optimism as the landscape continues to change.
