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Roughly a month after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a curious trend is emerging:&nbsp;Retail investors are selling, while institutions are gobbling up the supply. 
<h2 id="wall-street-emerging-as-bitcoin-whales-centralization-concerns-raised">Wall Street Emerging As Bitcoin Whales, Centralization Concerns Raised</h2> 
This development raises critical questions, with HODL15Capital on X&nbsp;<a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://twitter.com/HODL15Capital/status/1757222619168845941" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">saying</a> that Bitcoin could be on the verge of losing its decentralized spirit to Wall Street whales. This is considering how ferocious they have been buying tens of thousands of the scarce and fixed supply of the coin every trading day. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-281064" src="https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GGLoqHzWAAAbWqp.jpg?resize=1024%2C344" alt="How BTC whales and small holders are trading | Source: HODL15Capital on X" width="1024" height="344" srcset="https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GGLoqHzWAAAbWqp.jpg?resize=1024%2C344?w=2048 2048w, https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GGLoqHzWAAAbWqp.jpg?resize=1024%2C344?w=640 640w, https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GGLoqHzWAAAbWqp.jpg?resize=1024%2C344?w=768 768w, https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GGLoqHzWAAAbWqp.jpg?resize=1024%2C344?w=980 980w, https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GGLoqHzWAAAbWqp.jpg?resize=1024%2C344?w=1536 1536w, https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GGLoqHzWAAAbWqp.jpg?resize=1024%2C344?w=750 750w, https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GGLoqHzWAAAbWqp.jpg?resize=1024%2C344?w=1140 1140w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" data-recalc-dims="1"> 
Sharing data on X, HODL15Capital observes that small Bitcoin holders controlling less than 100 BTC have been offloading in recent weeks, selling over 25,000 BTC in the last month alone. Meanwhile, spot Bitcoin ETF issuers like Blackrock, Fidelity, and Ark have been on a buying spree, accumulating over 53,000 BTC during the same period. 
Some analysts attribute this rapid shift in coin buying to issuers’ attempts to accumulate when their management fees are still lower. As of mid-February, spot Bitcoin ETF issuers in the United States are charging among the lowest fees in the world, forcing investors in other parts of Europe and <a href="https://bitcoinist.com/purpose-bitcoin-etf-suffers-massive-outflows/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Canada</a> to dump their local spot Bitcoin ETFs and buy those by Bitwise, BlackRock, and the rest.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
Beyond the low management fees, Gabor Gurbacs, while responding,&nbsp;<a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://twitter.com/gaborgurbacs/status/1757351739458519047" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">said</a> the accelerated accumulation among spot Bitcoin ETF issuers could be because of other factors. Specifically, the founder of PointsVille thinks more whales with coins held at various exchanges like Binance, Kraken, and even Coinbase now prefer regulated ETFs, riding them the task of controlling private keys.&nbsp; 
<h2 id="btc-price-is-rising-small-holders-should-not-sell">BTC Price Is Rising, Small Holders Should Not Sell</h2> 
While the rising institutional interest has been bullish for BTC prices, reading from the current performance in the daily chart, HODL15Capital believes the cost is higher. The investor argues that it is dangerous for a handful of institutions to control a significant portion of the circulating supply. <a href="https://www.tradingview.com/x/3GVxQLsD/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full" src="https://www.tradingview.com/x/3GVxQLsD/" alt="Bitcoin price trending upward on the daily chart | Source: BTCUSDT on Binance, TradingView" width="1233" height="592"></a> 
In the analyst’s view, this will undermine the decentralized vision of Bitcoin, a network designed to serve as a layer for enabling electronic money. 
Related Reading: <a href="https://bitcoinist.com/xrp-golden-opportunity-top-executive-explains-why/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">XRP Is Golden Opportunity To Create Wealth, Top Executive Explains Why</a> 
Instead of the recent accumulation, HODL15Capital believes it would have been better for small BTC owners to hold on to their coin than allow whales to buy more. The more Wall Street dominates, controlling more circulating BTC supply, the democratic nature of Bitcoin would likely be stifled.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Wall Street Heavyweights Are Now BTC Whales: Is Bitcoin Losing Its Soul?

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