Main Insights
- Despite substantial purchases from large corporate entities in the first quarter, Bitcoin’s price declined by 12%, marking its poorest first quarter performance in seven years.
- Data from CryptoQuant shows that significant selling by long-term holders offset the corporate buying of BTC.
- Bitcoin’s current price stands at approximately $85,000, reflecting a 12% drop since the beginning of the year.
In the first quarter of 2025, public firms such as Strategy and Tether acquired a total of 91,781 Bitcoin. However, this continued demand did not prevent Bitcoin from experiencing its worst first quarter in seven years.
The decline in Bitcoin’s price has raised concerns among investors and analysts who had anticipated the bull run to persist into late 2025.
Leading Corporate Investors Accumulating Bitcoin
According to data from CryptoQuant, Strategy, previously known as MicroStrategy, emerged as the largest Bitcoin purchaser, adding 81,785 BTC in Q1 2025 for over $8 billion.
Tether followed as the second largest buyer, acquiring 8,888 BTC on the last day of the quarter, valued at $750 million.
Other notable corporate buyers included Metaplanet with 2,285 BTC, Semler Scientific with a purchase of 1,108 BTC, and The Blockchain Company with an acquisition of 605 BTC.
While prominent corporate players like Strategy are consistently purchasing Bitcoin every couple of weeks and Tether has allocated 15% of its profits for BTC acquisitions each quarter, an increasing number of public firms are resorting to debt issuance and stock sales to bolster their Bitcoin holdings.
Marathon Digital is planning a $2 billion stock sale to fund additional BTC purchases, while GameStop intends to issue a $1.3 billion convertible note offering to begin buying Bitcoin.
Despite nearly 100,000 BTC being acquired by corporate buyers, Bitcoin’s price still dropped over 12%. Analysis from CryptoQuant suggests that considerable selling from long-term holders was a key factor in this price decrease.
Long-Term Holders and ETF Withdrawals Creating Selling Pressures
CryptoQuant’s data suggests that, despite significant purchases by large buyers, these were countered by considerable outflows from exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and aggressive selling by long-term holders.
The statistics reveal that long-term holders sold a total of 178,000 BTC, nearly double what the corporate firms bought. This heavy selling pressure from long-term holders has neutralized the corporate purchases while engendering more bearish sentiment in the market.
Additionally, Bitcoin ETFs recorded a notable outflow of $4.5 billion during the same period.
The increased withdrawals and heavy selling by long-term holders suggest that despite the bullish sentiments sparked by President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto policies, the macroeconomic factors have held more weight in the short term.
At the beginning of the year, Bitcoin was priced at $94,700, but it has since declined by 12%. Bitcoin is currently trading at $84,973, attempting to surpass the $85,000 resistance level.
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