- Bitcoin has held above $80,000 through the weekend, despite a 35% drop in trading volume and continued profit-taking sales from retail holders.
- Institutions continue to absorb the sales, with Bitcoin ETFs recording six consecutive weeks of net inflows for the first time in nine months.
Bitcoin continues to hold above $80,000 through the weekend amid a slower market and a rise in retail sales. Most of the retail dumps have been absorbed by institutional holders whose accumulation has accelerated in the past month.
At press time, Bitcoin changes hands at $80,880, gaining 0.6% over the past day to push its market cap to $1.6 trillion. The top crypto set the pace for the rest of the market, whose overall market cap went up 0.3% to $2.69 trillion. Most large-cap cryptos gained less than 1% in the past day, with Hyperliquid dropping 2.4%, the highest dip among the top 10 coins.
Bitcoin’s trading volume dropped 35% to hit $16.65 billion, which would be expected for the weekend. However, it may be emblematic of another trend: retail exit.
According to a report by CryptoQuant, retail investors’ profit-taking is accelerating as BTC gains 37% since the start of April after two bearish months. On May 4, the daily realized profits shot up to 14,600 BTC, the highest it has been since early December last year.
The Short-Term Holder SOPR also hit 1.016, and according to CryptoQuant, has been in profit-taking territory for nearly four weeks now. SOPR compares the value of any BTC when it’s moved to the value when it was originally bought. A value above 1 shows it’s in profit.
CryptoQuant added:
“At 20K BTC, Bitcoin holders are realizing net profits on a 30-day rolling basis for the first time since December 22, 2025, a significant inflection from the heavy net losses of February and March 2026, which reached as deep as -398K BTC. This shift marks the first positive net profit period in over four months.”
Institutions Scoop up Bitcoin
The drop in retail Bitcoin interest was also showcased in South Korea, where crypto holdings by retail investors dipped over 50%. According to local reports, Koreans held $41.4 billion worth of crypto at the end of February, down from $83.3 billion at the end of January.
Daily trading volume across the five largest Korean exchanges has also dropped nearly 75% from $11.6 billion to $3 billion. Experts say the drop in prices is to blame, with most of the money now directed at the stock market.
But while retail interest subsides, institutions are ramping up their purchases. This past week marks the sixth consecutive week of net inflows for Bitcoin ETFs.
Data from SoSoValue shows that since April 2, these ETFs have recorded $3.4 billion in inflows. This week, they attracted $622 million in inflows. This is the longest run of consecutive weekly net inflows since early August, nine months ago, indicating that professional interest is picking up again after the February and March bear market when the ETFs bled.
