Bitcoin Price Liquidity Gap Widening: Big Boys Bought $1.2Bn But Retailers Sold

Ben Graham · 4 horas atrás

There’s something special that happened in January 2024. After years of hope and pain, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first nine spot Bitcoin ETFs. When this approval went through, Bitcoin, and by large, crypto as an industry, ushered in a new era.

No longer will Bitcoin and, by extension, some of the best cryptos to buy, be shaped by the whims of retail traders. Spot Bitcoin ETFs are regulated by the SEC, and that means institutions, often managing billions, if not trillions of investor funds, were free to dabble with the otherwise risky Bitcoin.

The reception was immediate and positive for Bitcoin and the entire crypto space. Not only did the Bitcoin price tick higher, soaring back towards the $70,000 level, a key resistance zone then, but institutions, almost immediately, started scooping up Bitcoin, channeling billions directly to the digital gold.

Since then, and thanks to changing regulations that are now more favorable to crypto, including top Solana meme coins, the total crypto market cap has spiked to over $3T. What’s more? The Bitcoin price is trading way above 2021 and 2024 highs, changing hands at nearly $90,000 when writing. Looking at solid trading numbers, it is still interesting to see that institutions have completely overwhelmed retailers and are the primary dictators of how fast or sticky crypto prices are.

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The Expanding Bitcoin Liquidity Gap: Bitcoin Price Shaped By The Big Boys?

In trading, liquidity is everything. Regardless of the asset in question, prices always search for liquidity, and this is no different in the BTC USDT. As long as prices tick higher, it means there are more buyers than sellers, and liquidity is increasing in favor of bulls. What this means is that it is easier to load up more Bitcoin without causing wild price swings or volatility. Oftentimes, the uptrend momentum fizzles when buyers’ attempt to scoop up more coins causes prices to gap down, not up.

Present data shows that the big boys, mostly institutions, are buying more BTC through registered vehicles at a faster pace than retailers. While it is also true that their redemption of spot Bitcoin ETFs during periods of bear pressure accelerates the downtrend, over the months, their buying impact has been visible to everyone.

Presently, spot Bitcoin ETF issuers manage over $115B of BTC for various institutions. The number is only expected to rise as Bitcoin finds adoption because spot Bitcoin ETFs let investors buy Bitcoin exposure through a regular brokerage account. This means there is no need for wallets or the daunting tasks of managing private keys.

To demonstrate their impact on the Bitcoin number, a quick scan of the BTC USD price action shows that on December 12, institutions bought over $330M of spot Bitcoin ETFs. On this day, the average price of Bitcoin was around $88,000. However, because of institutions demand, which culminated in more inflows of over $1Bn by January 5, the average Bitcoin price shot to over $94,000.

(Source:SosoValue)

During this time, trading data shows that inflows on spot exchanges, mostly by retail traders, were mostly negative before slowly rising before peaking at over $280M on January 5. The scale difference in inflows alone shows that institutions are the aggressors and actively shape price action.

(Source: Coinglass)

By week ending January 16, when retailers “sold” over $685M of Bitcoin, institutions played the contrarian game, pouring over $1.2Bn to spot Bitcoin ETFs. Their action, it seems, stabilized the market because Bitcoin and the next cryptos to buy have been see-sawing, pinned at the $90,000 level.

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Are Retailers Done? Their Era Over?

The Bitcoin and crypto game is fast-changing. In previous years, institutional money was often neutral. They would often buy spot and sell futures to capture funding rates as they execute delta-neutral strategies. However, throughout 2024 and 2025, and now in 2026, this yield is narrowing.

Accordingly, public companies, like MicroStrategy and MetaPlanet, for example, are making directional bets on Bitcoin. Recently, MicroStrategy has been ramping up Bitcoin purchases. They are stealthily buying because they, in the long term, expect the Bitcoin price to head higher.

More pressure is created from funds and institutions. When spot Bitcoin ETF issuers, for example, buy, either from the OTC or exchanges, they reduce the circulating supply. In turn, this creates a supply crunch that tends to lift prices higher.

This matters because ETF buying does not flinch at small dips. These buyers think in quarters and years, not hours. At times, ETF demand even exceeded new Bitcoin issuance, meaning fewer coins entered circulation than institutions wanted to buy. Supply pressure builds fast in that setup. If this trend continues in 2026, short-term pullbacks will be shorter, effectively changing how corrections behave.

Look at this…

ETF purchases of underlying crypto asset vs actual new issuance of crypto asset.

In other words, spot btc ETFs have bought 711k btc since launch, while only 363k btc have been mined.

See what’s going on here?

via @BitwiseInvest pic.twitter.com/ZfMNmWX9q9

— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) December 18, 2025

For retailers, they will face a tough game. Their FOMO might move prices but ultimately, institutional inflow will influence the speed of this leg up. The problem is, when the big boys step in, sudden rallies can liquidate overleveraged positions without warning. What’s more? With “thick” institutional liquidity, volatility drops, worsening entry points for traders.

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