Bitcoins [BTC] the recent recovery has hit a wall. The market is not panicking, but traders and institutions now appear cautious about taking aggressive positions.
The market is looking for stable ground. This is what you need to know…
Strategy’s BTC sale is more than just that
Strategy has sold Bitcoin for the first time in years, but the size of the move was small. The company sold 32 BTC for approximately $2.5 million between May 26 and May 31. The proceeds are expected to contribute to the financing of preferred stock dividends.
However, this is not the first time. The last sale came in December 2022, when Strategy sold 704 BTC for tax loss harvesting and bought back 810 BTC just a few days later. In practice, this was a tax measure.
This time too, the sale is not huge. The strategy still contains 843,706 BTC. So the bigger point is perception. With any strategy sale, the community will wonder: Is it just routine financing or a dent in the ‘never sell’ story?
Users reduce exposure to cryptocurrencies
It’s not just Strategy. OKX’s latest Proof of Reserves also showed that users are withdrawing from crypto.
As of May 7, users’ Bitcoin holdings on OKX dropped by 5,851 BTC to 111,188 BTC – a 5% drop from the previous release. Ethereum [ETH] holdings also fell by 50,140 ETH to 1.56 million ETH – a drop of 3.12%.
Interestingly, USDT holdings rose slightly higher to 10.24 billion USDT.
There is minimal panic and high defense.
A difficult road to recovery lies ahead of us
At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s Open Interest on the major exchanges (excluding CME) was still downstairs where it stood before the infamous liquidation of October 10, 2025. Simply put, traders have not yet fully rebuilt their leveraged positions.
Total Bitcoin Open Interest was almost 375,000 BTC before the crash, compared to around 351,000 BTC today. Although the market has stabilized, the risk appetite still needs to increase.
However, Binance is the clear exception. Open Interest has risen above pre-crisis levels and market share has also increased. This implied that activity could return where liquidity is higher.
Final summary
- Strategy sold 32 BTC for the first time since 2022.
- Bitcoin’s OI is still below pre-crash levels, with traders still cautious.