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Analysts warned that large scale Bitcoin holders moved billions in Bitcoin to exchanges early Friday morning.
Popular CryptoQuant analyst Maartunn warned on X that crypto financial services firm Galaxy Digital shifted $3.7 billion worth of Bitcoin early this morning.
He said of the 35,568 $BTC that had been moved to exchanges in the past 10 hours, 26,100 worth of Bitcoin—including a portion moved by Galaxy—was moved by short-term holders and sold at a loss.
It's important to mention that Galaxy oversees asset management and custody on behalf of clients, so it wasn't necessarily moving its own funds to exchanges.
3/ Short-Term Holders are leading the sell-off.
💥 26,100 $BTC — including Galaxy Digital’s — were sent to exchanges by STHs and sold at a loss. pic.twitter.com/HkjoshaIj0
— Maartunn (@JA_Maartun) July 25, 2025
Regardless of whose $BTC got moved to exchanges, the impact has been severe, Maartuun wrote.
"Selling pressure is mounting—and it's hitting Bitcoin hard," he said, adding that $BTC open interest has increased by $3.8 billion.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin has slid 1.8% to $116,365. That amounts to a small rebound from the $115,000 it saw early Friday morning. But the fact remains that a whopping $131.6 billion worth of Bitcoin has changed hands in the past 24 hours, marking a 37% increase in trading volume, according to crypto analytics platform Coinglass.
And BRN Lead Research Analyst Valentin Fournier noted that more than half a billion worth of options positions have been liquidated in the past day. At the time of writing, the total has climbed to $531 million—$376 million of it long positions, or traders who were optimistically betting that prices would go up.
"This flush has reset overleveraged long positions, creating a healthier market foundation," he wrote in a note shared with Decrypt. "Notably, short open interest now exceeds $2.8 billion, setting up a potential short squeeze when Bitcoin regains upward momentum."
The sudden selling pressure hasn't been enough to drop investors into fear mode, though.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index still sits at 70, only having lost 1 point since yesterday. But Myriad Market users don't think it'll climb much higher before the end of the month. Only 38% of Myriad users think it'll manage to reach 72 before July 29.
(Disclosure: Myriad is a prediction market and engagement platform developed by Dastan, parent company of an editorially independent Decrypt.)
Bitcoin mostly traded sideways this week, despite a midweek rout that curtailed a rally for altcoins XRP and Solana. Institutional investors had started to turn the tide, logging net deposits of $226 million into Bitcoin ETFs Thursday, according to Farside Investors.
That uptick saved the funds from a week in the red. But the funds are still trending down for the week. Traders have withdrawn a total of $285 million from the $BTC funds Monday through Wednesday.