Under the Iran-U.S. conflict, the Bitcoin market is currently splitting: institutions continue to buy, while whales and mining firms are accelerating their sell-offs

Gate News message. On April 11, against the backdrop of ongoing geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran for about 6 weeks, the Bitcoin market showed a clear split pattern. On the one hand, institutional investors represented by Strategy and spot ETFs continued to accumulate Bitcoin; on the other hand, whales, mining companies, and some sovereign holders shifted toward selling down. Data shows that whale addresses holding 1,000–10,000 BTC changed from net buying to large-scale net selling, with year-to-date holdings shifting from about +200k BTC to -188k BTC. Listed mining companies, under high-cost pressure, concentrated their sell-offs, with weekly liquidation volumes exceeding 19k BTC. In addition, sovereign holders such as Bhutan have reduced their Bitcoin reserves by about 70% since October 2024. Although market sentiment temporarily fell into an extreme fear range, the Bitcoin price still remained range-bound, trading between $65k and $73k. Analysts believe that the current price floor relies mainly on buy-side support from a small number of institutions. The market’s buyer base continues to shrink, and the subsequent trend will depend on whether institutional fund inflows can remain sustained and break through the key resistance zone.