Bitcoin rally stalls despite corporations, funds buying billions
It is difficult to imagine a more favorable environment for institutional bitcoin (BTC) adoption, yet it stubbornly refuses to rally.
Despite sustained spot ETF inflows and record-setting purchases by a growing number of corporations, BTC has rallied a mere 9% year to date.
Many investors had predicted that BTC’s bull cycle would have commenced in earnest by now, given that 2025 has been more bullish than any year in history by several metrics.
Indeed, in the last six months, the number of publicly-traded BTC acquisition companies has nearly doubled to over 130. Steadily reducing supply through their capital proceeds of stock, corporate paper, and preferred issuances, these companies have purchased 241,644 BTC since the start of the year and now hold a combined 832,293 BTC.
Leverage-fueled purchases by Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) mean it continues to lead in absolute dollar amounts, acquiring another 10,100 BTC in its most recent buy this week.
Even seemingly unrelated companies like Prenetics and GameStop are getting into the BTC treasury race with multi-million dollar BTC plans.
Stated plainly, publicly traded companies have increased their holdings 41% and reduced the worldwide circulating supply of BTC by over $24 billion (1.2%) this year.
No rally in 2025 means Bitcoin has some explaining to do
Moreover, fund flows have added even more strength to the institutional bid. Publicly traded funds like ETFs held 1,289,026 BTC on behalf of their customers at the start of the year.
Today, investment inflows have increased their holdings by 7% to 1,382,151 BTC.
Read more: US government might use tariffs to buy BTC
Governments have also increased their holdings due to public/private mining partnerships, criminal seizures, and other actions. Since the start of 2025, governments have increased their BTC holdings 2.6% from 513,794 to 527,773.
Despite all of these bullish factors and all-time highs in institutional adoption, BTC has stayed stuck in a narrow range for most of the year.
Despite tens of billions of spot purchases by corporate executives and fund managers, it has failed to sustain a rally above December 2024’s high of $108,100.
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