Bitcoin has just surged to touch a new all-time high at around $69,170, according to data from Coinmarketcap, following significant buying pressure seen over the past few weeks. 

Despite discrepancies across exchanges, this price surge has prompted several traders and investors to take profits, creating significant selling pressure and resulting in a correction to the $63,000 range at present. 

In this scenario, the majority of institutional investors appear to have capitalised on the momentum and reaped profits, while retailers seem to have incurred losses.

Bitcoin Touches New All-Time High

According to Coinmarketcap data, Bitcoin has recently reached a new all-time high of $69,170 approximately 13 hours prior to the time of writing this article. 

There are some differences among various exchanges and data providers; for instance, Coingecko has not recorded the current movement as the highest price and still notes the November 2021 movement as its peak at around $69,044.

Monthly BTCUSD Chart

Binance also notes that Bitcoin has not yet shown movement towards a new all-time high as it has not surpassed the highest wick on its monthly candlestick at the end of 2021, similar to Coingecko’s observation. Nonetheless, this movement has encouraged several investors and traders to take profits, selling their Bitcoin and driving its price down. 

Currently, Bitcoin appears to be declining towards the $63,000 range, even dropping to $57,500 at one point before rebounding, according to data from Binance. 

Despite data discrepancies, the majority of crypto market participants currently believe that this Bitcoin cycle may differ from previous ones. 

This is because, in previous cycles, Bitcoin had to undergo halving first before reaching new highs. Considering halving has not occurred yet, there is an anomaly in the four-year cycle pattern that has persisted thus far. 

There’s a narrative suggesting that with this difference, Bitcoin has the potential to surge higher than the percentage appreciation of previous bull runs, offering hope for substantial gains post-halving.

Institutions Profit as Retailers Lose

Unfortunately, due to the sudden volatility experienced last night, retail traders suffered significant losses. According to data from Coinglass, in the past 24 hours, there have been liquidations amounting to $1.15 billion, with the majority of these liquidations being long positions. 

This means that within the past 24 hours, losses from futures contract positions forced to close due to stop-loss or margin exhaustion (margin call) amounted to $1.15 billion, with $885.07 million of these losses coming from traders who predicted that Bitcoin would continue to rise. 

There were also losses for traders who opened short positions due to the sudden volatility, as Bitcoin dropped to $57,500 and then rose back to the current $63,000 range. As a result, there are remaining losses of $265.24 million from traders who opened short positions in the past 24 hours.

Simultaneously, it appears that institutional investors are still in a profitable position, according to data from Dune Analytics summarised by a user named Hildobby. 

It is noted that on the previous Monday, before the correction occurred, there were sales from the majority of institutional investors through Bitcoin Spot ETFs amounting to $142 million. 

This indicates a $142 million transaction volume for Bitcoin sales, possibly followed by other institutional investors to take profits. These transactions were made before the correction, meaning that some institutional investor portfolios were not affected by yesterday’s correction. 

Furthermore, institutional investors also made purchases during the correction, with yesterday’s buying volume almost reaching $550 million while retailers incurred losses in the derivative market amounting to $1.15 billion.

In addition to institutional investors, whales themselves were seen selling, but not significantly. According to data from CryptoQuant, the current ratio between whales sending Bitcoin to exchanges for sale and vice versa to be stored in wallets is relatively equal. 

However, before the correction occurred, the majority of whales were seen sending funds to exchanges, but today and yesterday after the correction, the majority are sending their Bitcoin back to private wallets albeit with smaller volumes. 

This movement indicates that whales and institutions have successfully capitalised on the momentum while retailers suffered losses, a harsh reality not only in the crypto world but in the financial world as well.

The good news is, overall, the majority of investors still holding Bitcoin appear to be in a profitable position despite the significant correction yesterday. 

According to data from CryptoQuant, currently, about 56% of all unsold Bitcoin is in a profitable position, thus overall conditions remain relatively positive. 

Nevertheless, this event serves as a reminder for investors and traders, especially retailers, to avoid FOMO and remain cautious of potential volatility. Furthermore, this event underscores the importance of not always trusting overly optimistic narratives in the crypto world and always basing decisions on data.