Recently, there's a phenomenon that’s quite eye-opening. On-chain data is right in front of us: over the past 24 hours, more than 2,500 BTC have flowed into exchanges. Based on the patterns of the past few years, this scene is definitely a sign of "the night before a sharp decline"—retail investors panic and sell off en masse.

But here’s the problem. BTC has stubbornly held at the $89,000 level, and yesterday even saw a strong rebound.

What the heck is going on? Are the data self-contradictory, or has the entire market’s "common sense" been overturned?

We need to take a closer look. On the surface, it appears to be large inflows, but the story behind it is completely different.

For retail investors, the signals are very clear. Google search interest has plummeted to the lowest point, small transaction counts have dropped by 66%, and market enthusiasm is frozen. Turning to institutional activity—since 2025, Bitcoin spot ETF inflows have exceeded $25 billion, and giants like BlackRock are still increasing their holdings.

Do you understand? That influx of 2,500 BTC isn’t retail buying; it’s institutional custody operations after OTC bulk transactions. The chips are moving in large-scale, one-way transfers from emotionally volatile retail investors to institutional vaults. This is called "turnover," not a sign of decline.

The cycle logic has completely changed.

The old cycle was like this: retail follow the trend to buy → prices surge → collective sell-off → crash. Simple and straightforward, repeating endlessly.

Now, it’s different. Institutions continuously absorb selling pressure → bottom chips become more stable → prices at high levels repeatedly lock in → the true bottom is permanently raised. Market dominance has long shifted hands; retail investors just haven’t realized it yet. Those large inflows? Rather than risk signals, they are institutions "laying the groundwork" for the next round of market movement.