Wall Street is draining Bitcoin from exchanges, says Fidelity

Wall Street’s hunger for Bitcoin is bleeding crypto exchanges dry, and Fidelity Investments says the pace is only getting faster. In a post on X Thursday, Fidelity said:

“We have seen bitcoin supply on exchanges dropping due to public company purchases—something we anticipate accelerating in the near future.”

The numbers are brutal. Only 2.6 million Bitcoin remain on all exchanges combined, the lowest since November 2018. Since November 2024, more than 425,000 Bitcoin have been removed from trading platforms.

Since the US election, public companies have collected nearly 350,000 Bitcoin. And in 2025 alone, these companies have averaged more than 30,000 Bitcoin purchases per month.

The timeline of these flows is lining up with Bitcoin’s recent price climb, which hit around $95,000 earlier this week. But the real battleground is Binance, which holds about 40% of the entire retail spot market and acts as a mood tracker for retail players.

Between April 6 and 10, Bitcoin inflows to Binance surged past 15,000, while the price was stuck between $85,000 and $87,000. That kind of move usually means people were dumping their coins, probably taking profits or paying taxes. Then the tide turned.

Between April 19 and 23, the flow reversed. Binance saw 15,000 Bitcoin leave, and the price shot up to $93,000 and above. That pattern is classic: coins going off exchanges means people are storing them privately, not selling. That’s accumulation, not panic.

After April 18, reserves on exchanges began to fall fast, dropping the near-term pressure to sell and giving the market more breathing room to move upward.

Another data point—the Exchange Whale Ratio—fell below 0.3 on April 23, showing that smaller retail players are back in action and large players are taking a step back. That metric tracks how much activity is dominated by big traders. 

Under 0.3 means fewer whales are moving coins, and the flow is more retail-driven. That’s often seen as a more stable setup, where the price isn’t pushed around by a few massive wallets.

Shorts remain exposed above $92K as liquidity runs thin

The big flush came when long positions using high leverage got wrecked between $82,000 and $88,000, clearing out weak hands. Right now, short sellers are exposed above $92,000. 

If anything triggers a squeeze—whether it’s renewed ETF buying, a change in Federal Reserve policy, or a shock in emerging markets—that thin liquidity could send Bitcoin flying past $98,000 or even into six digits.

Still, the fuel for that kind of move isn’t all there. Bitcoin spot demand is down. In the last 30 days, demand dropped by 146,000 Bitcoin. That’s a slower drop than March 27, when demand had collapsed by 311,000 Bitcoin, but it’s still a decline. 

Worse, demand momentum—which tracks buying by new holders compared to old ones—is falling faster. It’s now down by 642,000 Bitcoin, the weakest level since October 2024. Without momentum from new buyers, the price has a harder time holding gains.

Things aren’t better on the ETF side. US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs haven’t done much since late March. Daily inflows are bouncing between -5,000 and +3,000 Bitcoin, a far cry from the 8,000-plus daily inflows seen back in November and December 2024 when the price was on its first run toward $100,000.

For comparison, ETFs have sold 10,000 Bitcoin net in 2025. By this time in 2024, they had bought a net 208,000 Bitcoin. That’s a major drop-off, and until that number changes, it’s hard to make the case for a sustained rally.

On the liquidity front, there’s a bit of growth, but it’s still soft. The market cap of USDT, which traders use to gauge overall liquidity, grew by $2.9 billion in the last 60 days. That’s positive, but not enough. Bitcoin tends to rally hard when USDT’s market cap jumps by more than $5 billion and stays above its 30-day moving average. Right now, that’s not happening.

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