Companies ‘ghosting’ the crypto market: where have the billion-dollar buyers gone?

While billion-dollar companies eagerly added Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to their balance sheets earlier this year, that appetite suddenly seems to have disappeared. Since the sharp market correction, major buyers have been noticeably quiet. What’s stopping these heavyweights from getting back in?

Major buyers have been failing since the crash

Since the sharp correction in the crypto market on October 10, large companies have remained noticeably aloof. According to David Duong, head of research at crypto exchange Coinbase, so-called crypto reserve companies have almost completely stopped purchasing since that crash.

In an analysis on X, Duong speaks of ‘ghosting’. BTC purchases by these parties have fallen to the lowest level of the year, even on days when the market was up. According to Duong, their absence indicates “limited confidence” in the current market conditions.

It is striking that there is still some purchasing activity on the Ethereum side, but this largely comes from one party, Bitmine. Duong states that the majority of net purchases of ETH come from this one player. “If BMNR pauses, it could appear as if there is no institutional interest at all,” he warns.

Bitmine announced a new purchase of $321 million worth of Ethereum on Monday, bringing the total to 3.31 million ETH. That represents more than 2.8 percent of the entire ETH supply.

The largest public crypto reserve company, Strategy, continues to make purchases, but in much smaller volumes than before. In the past three weeks, the company added nearly $90 million worth of Bitcoin to its reserves. Compared to Strategy’s total portfolio, this is very little. The company now owns 640,808 BTC, with an estimated market value of $73.3 billion.

The recent purchases are also in stark contrast to last year, when the company experienced periods in which it added billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin every week.

Another major public Bitcoin reserve company is Japan’s Metaplanet. The last time it bought BTC was on September 30. Recently, the company’s total stock market value even fell below the value of its Bitcoin assets.

ETHZilla dumps its ETH holdings

Well-known analyst Ted Pillows also points out another remarkable and potentially worrying trend. The company ETHZilla sold $40 million worth of Ethereum, and then used only $12 million to buy back its own shares.

Pillows calls it a “uno reverse” of the public reserve companies. Instead of building up crypto as a strategic reserve, it is now being sold. In this way, companies undermine their previously stated long-term goals. It also fuels fears of a potentially dangerous crash if confidence continues to erode and several parties decide to sell off their reserves en masse.

Why this wait-and-see attitude?

Duong points to the effect of the leverage correction at the beginning of October. Many positions with borrowed capital were then forcibly liquidated. The crash was sparked by Trump’s threat to impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods from November 1.

Bitcoin had just reached a new all-time high of $126,000, but crashed to around $105,000 a few days later. Although prices have stabilized since then, many companies remain reluctant to re-enter.

“Without the presence of major players, the current support zones appear less solid,” Duong said. Coinbase therefore advises investors to remain cautious in the short term: “The market is fragile if the largest balance sheets are left on the sidelines.”