2025: The Bitcoin liquidity reset

Bitcoin’s 2025 cycle wasn’t just another bull run. It was a capital event unlike anything the asset has ever seen.

Data from Glassnode and Fasanara Digital shows BTC taking in $732 billion of this cycle’s fresh capital, more than all previous bull cycles combined. And those inflows for the first time were dominated by institutions, not retail rotation.

And here’s the twist:

Not a penny of that new money trickled into altcoins. ETH and the broader market largely brought liquidity from stablecoins back into circulation.

📈 The new shape of a Bitcoin bull market

Bitcoin was the owner of 2025 in a manner that defies all “normal” cycle rules.

What changed:

• $732B in new liquidity, up from $388B last cycle

• ETF institutional money brought the most inflows

• Liquidity stayed with BTC, instead of rotating into Altcoins as seen in the past

• Average volatility dropped by 50% compared to its 2021 level

• BTC rallied 715% from the 2022 lows while ETH and other alts around 350%

ETF rails, brokerages and regulated US platforms remade the liquidity map.

Stablecoins also ballooned 89% year-to-date, dollarizing crypto, but that rotation largely shifted within DeFi rather than into altcoin risk cycles.

This was the first bull run where Bitcoin behaved as an institutional asset rather than a retail “momentum” trade.

🧭 Understanding capital rotation: BTC the sole net buyer magnet

There was a cyclical predictability to past cycles:

BTC → ETH → large caps → low caps → meme season.

But 2025 broke the model.

Investors appetite for new altcoins reduced. Rug pulls, low-FDV VC tokens and failed narratives didn’t help either. BTC, on the other hand, had several inflow spikes of $40-190B/month, and ETH depended primarily on stablecoin churn.

The result: Altcoins lagged if not even fell, with their short-lived rallies lacking liquidity.

Short-term holders crack as Bitcoin dips below cost basis

With BTC in the red relative to short-term holder cost, nearly 40% of recent buyers are now underwater and most of them bought between $75K and $125K.

You can see the pressure:

• Capitulation signs appeared under $90K

• But all things considered, volatility remained unusually low.

• Institutional depth muted panic selling

BTC has grown up and is acting like a maturing macro asset, but with crypto-style leverage continuing to test the limits.

💡 Why this cycle matters

The key takeaway:

This was Bitcoin’s first institution-led cycle and it changed the perception of the entire market.

When money pours in via ETFs and regulated rails it:

• supports price floors

• reduces reflexive blow-offs

• concentrates liquidity in BTC

• weakens a bit the altcoin engine

• makes the market feel more macro than memecoin roulette

Base vs Solana : New tensions post bridge went live?

The Base–Solana bridge went live last week, and rather than celebration, it sparked one of the most vicious chain-vs.-chain debates of the year.

What happened?

Base released a bridge powered by Chainlink CCIP and Coinbase infra that allows users to import Solana assets into apps built on Base. But Solana builders say it’s not so much “interoperability” as Base trying to pull liquidity.

Solana founders and builders argue:

• Base coordinated launch only with Base-native apps

• Solana Foundation wasn’t looped in

• Execution + fees stay on Base, while assets flow from Solana

• Messaging frames it as bidirectional, but rollout looks one-way

Solana is afraid of being a feeder chain to Base’s DeFi expansion. Base says the bridge is neutral and developed because devs wanted to have access to both ecosystems.

• Year‑end rotation pushes beaten US stocks to outperform broad market

• Solana extends DEX volume lead to four straight months

• Harvard ramps up Bitcoin Holding to $443 million and digs into gold ETFs

• XRP, ADA, ETH lead market recovery, Bitcoin edges higher on Fed rate cut expectations

• Fake arrest of Albanian AI minister over BTC bribe spotlights chronic Balkan corruption

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