In the first three months of 2025, companies around the world added almost 91.8 thousand (more than $7.7 billion at the April 2 exchange rate) bitcoin coins to their corporate accounts.
However, such a huge demand from organizations did not positively affect the price of the main cryptocurrency, which has lost about 10% since the beginning of January.
The analytical company CryptoQuant suggested that the reason for the drop in such demand was the sale of bitcoin by long-term investors and capital outflows from exchange-traded funds based on BTC.
Michael Taylor's Strategy, a software vendor and the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, added more than 81.7 thousand BTC to the balance.
Tether, the issuer of the largest USDT stablecoin, added 8,900 BTC. The Japanese investment company Metaplanet — 2.3 thousand BTC, the technological organization from the field of healthcare Semler Scientific — 1.1 thousand BTC, the Blockchain crypto company — 605 BTC.
In the first quarter of 2025, these companies collectively added 91.8 thousand BTC, or $7.7 billion, to their balance sheets.
However, high demand has not been able to prevent the bitcoin price from losing about 10% since the beginning of January. As of April 2, bitcoin quotes are at around $85.8 thousand, according to Binance.
CryptoQuant specializes in the analysis of on-chain data of the bitcoin blockchain and other cryptocurrencies. The so-called on-chain analytics is a type of research of information obtained from public blockchain networks such as bitcoin and Ethereum.
Blockchain technology is an open registry of information with the entire transaction history, allowing any competent person from anywhere in the world to view these transactions at any time and draw their own conclusions.
CryptoQuant is one of the flagship analytics companies in the field of on-chain data analysis along with Glassnode and Santiment. Based on their own metrics, companies try to identify behavioral and price patterns and use them for forecasting.
One of the reasons for the fall in the price of bitcoin in the first quarter was the sale of coins by long-term holders. According to CryptoQuant estimates, blockchain data indicated a reduction in the balance sheets of this group of investors by 178 thousand. BTC (about $15 billion) in the first quarter. This is exactly what leveled corporate purchases, creating additional pressure on the price.
Experts cited outflows of $4.8 billion from bitcoin ETFs since the beginning of the year as another main reason for the drop in the bitcoin price, which increased pressure on BTC.
Long-term bitcoin investors mean blockchain addresses that hold bitcoin in their balance for more than 155 days. This category of investors is considered to be the most resistant to market stresses. It is generally assumed that they bought bitcoin at prices significantly lower than the current one, and sales on their part may mean a change in trend.
Bitcoin-based spot Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) provide investors with legal access to cryptocurrency through the NASDAQ and NYSE stock exchanges. The issue of new shares requires the actual supply (purchase) of bitcoin by the funds. The demand from such ETFs provided the crypto market with a significant inflow of capital and became the driver of its growth in 2024.
In mid-March, the head of CryptoQuant, Ki Yang Ju, expressed the opinion that "the market faces from six to 12 months of a bearish trend or sideways price movement." At that time, Ju outlined the reasons for his opinion as "the lack of demand for bitcoin in the context of ongoing capital outflow."
The data on weak demand coincides with the forecast of another analytical blockchain company, Glassnode. Their information for mid—March correlates with CryptoQuant's findings - bitcoin, according to their metrics, has also shown weak signs of accumulation and flagging demand since January.
"This reversal indicates that macroeconomic uncertainty has spooked demand, reducing new inflows and possibly increasing the likelihood of further selling pressure and a prolonged correction," Glassnode said in a report.
In addition to those companies that have announced the addition of bitcoin to their balances, Cryptoquip has named two more organizations that plan to do so. This is the largest American mining company MARA, as well as the American retail chain for the sale of video game consoles, computer games and gaming accessories GameStop.
Both companies raise borrowed capital by issuing securities in order to purchase bitcoin with the proceeds.
On March 31, MARA filed documents for the placement of debt obligations in the amount of $2 billion, which currently has 46,374 BTC (about $3.8 billion) on MARA's balance sheet, which is the second largest volume among public companies after Strategy.
GameStop, in turn, has already completed the sale of such securities on April 1. According to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company has raised $1.5 billion. And at least some of them will be used to buy bitcoin.
