Galaxy Digital executed a $9 billion Bitcoin sale for a Satoshi-era investor in July 2025, one of the largest crypto exits to date. This event signals a new era, as early Bitcoin adopters distribute coins to meet rising institutional demand without disrupting the market.

This ongoing shift marks Bitcoin’s transition into a more mature and stable market. Institutional capital now dominates, as on-chain data shows dormant wallets reactivating throughout 2025. The asset’s evolution from speculative play to global financial infrastructure continues to accelerate.

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The Mechanics of Bitcoin’s Distribution Phase

Bitcoin’s current consolidation resembles the post-IPO stages in traditional equities, where early backers gradually exit as institutions enter.

In a Subtack post, Jeff Park, an advisor at Bitwise, describes this as a “silent IPO,” which lets original holders distribute Bitcoin through ETF infrastructure. Unlike previous downturns shaped by regulation or failures, today’s distribution happens under strong macro conditions and growing institutional interest.

On-chain data reflects the trend. Dormant wallets that were inactive for years began moving coins in mid-2025. For example, in October 2025, a wallet that had been inactive for three years transferred $694 million in Bitcoin, highlighting broader wallet reactivations during the year.

Blockchain analytics firm Bitquery also tracked numerous wallets that had been dormant for over a decade, becoming active in 2024 and 2025.

Crucially, this distribution is patient, not panic-driven. Sellers target high-liquidity windows and institutional partners to minimize price impact.

The Galaxy Digital transaction demonstrates this approach, where over 80,000 Bitcoin were moved during estate planning for an early investor, all without destabilizing the market.

Historically, such consolidation phases in traditional finance last six to 18 months. Companies like Amazon and Google experienced similar periods after their IPOs, as founders and venture investors made room for long-term institutional investors.

Bitcoin’s ongoing consolidation since early 2025 signals a comparable shift from retail pioneers to professional asset managers.

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Institutional Adoption Accelerates as Early Holders Exit

This handoff from early holders to institutions relies heavily on the expansion of ETF infrastructure. Since the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in early 2024, institutional inflows have surged.

CoinShares research reported that as of Q4 2024, investors managing over $100 million collectively held $27.4 billion in Bitcoin ETFs, a 114% quarterly gain. Institutional investors accounted for 26.3% of Bitcoin ETF assets, up from 21.1% the prior quarter.

North American crypto adoption increased by 49% in 2025, driven primarily by institutional demand and the introduction of new ETF products, according to Chainalysis. This growth ties directly to the accessibility of spot ETFs, a familiar option for cautious investors.

Still, market penetration remains early. River’s Bitcoin Adoption Report reveals that only 225 of over 30,000 global hedge funds held Bitcoin ETFs in early 2025, with an average allocation of just 0.2%.

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This gap between interest and allocation demonstrates how institutional integration is just beginning. Still, the trend remains upward. Galaxy Digital ended Q2 2025 with roughly $9 billion in combined assets under management and stake, a 27% quarterly increase—thanks in part to rising crypto prices and the record-setting Bitcoin sale. Its digital assets division delivered $318 million in adjusted gross profit, and trading volumes jumped 140%, as detailed in Galaxy’s Q2 2025 financial results.

The crypto lending ecosystem also expanded. According to Galaxy’s leverage research, Q2 2025 saw $11.43 billion in growth, bringing total crypto-collateralized lending to $53.09 billion.

This 27.44% quarterly rise signals strong demand for institutional-grade infrastructure that supports large transactions and wealth strategies.

Psychological De-Risking and the New Bitcoin Holder Profile

The logic behind early holder exits goes beyond profit-taking. Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise, highlights that early Bitcoin investors remain bullish but prioritize psychological risk management after life-changing gains.

On X (Twitter), he explained that many clients aim to preserve their wealth while keeping some long-term Bitcoin exposure.

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Strategies include swapping spot Bitcoin for ETFs to gain custodial peace of mind, or borrowing from private banks without selling.

Others write call options for income and set price targets for partial liquidations. These approaches signal smart wealth management and continued potential upside, not pessimism.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas confirmed on X that original holders are selling actual Bitcoin, not just ETF shares. He likened these early risk-takers to “The Big Short” investors, who were first to spot opportunities and are now reaping the rewards.

As institutional ownership expands, Bitcoin’s volatility is projected to decrease, thanks to a broader distribution across pension funds and investment advisors.

This supports greater market stability and draws additional conservative capital. As a result, Bitcoin continues to shift from a speculative asset to a foundational monetary tool in global finance.

Democrats and one Republican say the pardon is inappropriate given business links between Binance and Trump family crypto interests.

WASHINGTON – Five days after President Donald Trump pardoned the founder of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange the company helped boost Trump’s fortunes by promoting his family’s own crypto product, a digital coin known as USD1.

“Deposits for $USD1 are now open on @BinanceUS!” the firm’s U.S. subsidiary said in an Oct. 28 post on X, in reference to the Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency.

Binance also posted promotions saying it would now accept Trump’s separate World Liberty Financial token on its U.S.-based site. Both USD1 and $WLFI were already available on Binance’s international platform, which is not available in the United States. Making both tokens more easily accessible for American investors is likely to increase their value by enlarging the pool of potential buyers.

More: Trump’s latest unusual pardon is a crypto CEO. Here are 8 more.

Trump and his three sons launched World Liberty Financial with Trump’s diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff and his sons Zach and Alex in September 2024, and the firm soared in visibility and profit once Trump was elected in November 2024 and began deregulating the crypto industry.

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A stablecoin like USD1 is a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to another asset, in this case the U.S. dollar. Trump’s $WLFI token has no inherent value on its own, and its worth is based on whatever his supporters and investors spend on it. Binance’s Oct. 28 announcement noted that trading would begin Oct 29, giving USD1 its official seal of approval as “a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin … fully backed by regulated reserves including U.S. Treasuries.”

Binance’s founder, Chinese-born Canadian tech tycoon Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Zhao pleaded guilty to money-laundering in 2023 and served four months in federal prison before being pardoned by Trump on Oct. 23.

Binance does more than host and promote World Liberty Financial: As Zhao was seeking a pardon earlier this year, Binance asked an Abu Dhabi government-backed investment fund, MGX, to use Trump’s USD1 coin when investing $2 billion in Binance, the Wall Street Journal recently reported.

More: How much money did Trump make in first 100 days? Crypto deals raise questions

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By steering the $2 billion transaction through World Liberty − a fledgling startup run by Trump family members with no crypto experience − the deal effectively increased demand for the family’s cryptocurrency, generating fresh revenue from interest on the growing reserves that back it.

“The opportunity for corruption is not hypothetical. Trump has already given us a staggering example,” the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, said in a May 5 Senate floor speech. MGX’s use of Trump’s USD1 stablecoin to finance its $2 billion investment in Binance, she said, is “essentially giving Trump a cut of the deal.”

‘Persecuted by the Biden administration’

Binance agreed to pay over $4 billion in 2023, to settle a yearslong investigation by the Justice Department and U.S. financial regulators. And it agreed to plug gaps in its financial protocols that prosecutors said had allowed criminals and terrorist groups like Hamas, Al Qaeda and the Islamic State to move illicit money on Binance’s crypto platform.

“Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in part because of the crimes it committed – now it is paying one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history,” then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said. 

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Trump family earns $5B from World Liberty crypto venture

Trump and family made about $5 billion from World Liberty Financial’s $WLFI token, sparking ethical concerns.

The White House and Trump himself have parried questions about the ethics of Zhao’s pardon, which allows the crypto mogul to return to the business he helped found in 2017. They say it’s just Trump making good on his campaign promise to relax overly strict Biden-era regulations that crypto executives opposed.

At an Oct. 23 White House event, Trump told reporters he pardoned Zhao “at the request of a lot of good people” who said the financier “was persecuted by the Biden administration” and that “what he did is not even a crime.”

“The Biden administration’s war on crypto is over,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt added in a statement.

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Binance did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Zhao’s pardon and its promotion of the Trump coins days later.

But in a X post in response to criticism of the sequence of events by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., it said, “Dear Senator, We conduct comprehensive due diligence and legal review before listing any asset on @BinanceUS, whether it’s a stablecoin, a new ecosystem project, or a meme token.”

Binance said both of the Trump coins, USD1 and $WLFI, are already listed on more than 20 other major crypto exchanges, which are used to buy, sell, store and use cryptocurrencies. “To be clear, this was a business decision on the part of @BinanceUS and nothing more,” the company said. “It’s unfortunate that even routine business decisions are now unfairly politicized by our elected officials.”

The White House also denied any quid pro quo.

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In an Oct. 30 statement to USA TODAY, Leavitt said: “The media’s continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public’s distrust in what they read. Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.”

Trump initially ‘not a fan’ of cryptocurrency

When a reporter pressed Trump for answers about why he pardoned Zhao and whether it had to do with his family’s crypto investments at the Oct. 23 White House event, he shot back, “You don’t know much about crypto. You know nothing about nothing.”

Trump, for his part, has become a cryptocurrency enthusiast since saying in July 2019 that he was “not a fan of Bitcoin” and that crypto was used to facilitate crime and was “not money.”

Since then, he and his family have made as much as $5 billion in paper gains from their various cryptocurrency holdings, including $864 million in reported actual cash profits in the first six months of this year alone.

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They’ve launched their own companies and coins. And they’ve developed ties to industry leaders here and overseas, obtaining investments and donations while granting access to Trump. On May 22, Trump dined with 220 investors who plowed a combined $148 million into his crypto venture, inviting a torrent of criticism about the ethical implications.

By that month, World Liberty had already raised more than $500 million from selling a separate digital token.

Trump signs Genius Act, first major U.S. crypto law, into effect

President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act, establishing the first U.S. crypto law regulating stablecoins.

The top bidder for a seat at that dinner and a separate VIP meet-and-greet was Justin Sun, a Hong Kong crypto entrepreneur who pumped $75 million into World Liberty Financial soon after it launched. Sun, who reportedly had avoided setting foot on U.S. soil for fear of being arrested, had been facing civil fraud charges under the Biden administration. But Trump’s Securities and Exchange Commission stayed the case against him in February.

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Another so-called “crypto bro” that Trump pardoned was Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison for founding and operating what the U.S. government said was “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet,” which used bitcoin for transactions, which aided in protecting user identities.

‘A full time, 24/7 corruption machine’

Democrats and even one Republican have criticized the Zhao pardon as especially inappropriate given the business links between Binance and the Trump family’s crypto interests.

“I don’t like it,” retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said about the pardon, saying it sends “a bad signal.”

“He was convicted,” Tillis told reporters on Oct. 23. “He’s not innocent.”

More: Trump’s crypto dinner: Black ties, a Chinese billionaire and ethics questions

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Democrats suggest the pardon could undermine a fraught effort on Capitol Hill to overhaul crypto regulations, which requires bipartisan support.

Murphy, the Democratic senator, posted on X that Binance began promoting Trump’s USD1 crypto coin “one week after Trump pardoned Binance’s owner (for a stunning array of crimes related to terrorist and sex predator financing).”

“The White House,” Murphy added, “is a full time, 24/7 corruption machine.”

The largest US crypto firm also paying Trump lots of money

Binance isn’t the only crypto firm showering money on Trump in the hopes of preferential treatment.

Earlier this year, Trump’s SEC dropped a lawsuit against Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange for buying, selling, storing and using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Trump’s USD1 stablecoin. That happened soon after the company gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.

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Coinbase has also reportedly confirmed that it is one of many crypto firms funding the new $300 million ballroom that Trump tore down the White House’s East Wing to build.

More: How much money did Trump make in first 100 days? Crypto deals raise questions

Coinbase is facing a separate SEC investigation started under former President Joe Biden, and is now seeking SEC approval to offer blockchain-based stocks.

Trump crypto ventures ‘a whopping success’

Since Trump’s election last November, his sons Don Jr. and Eric have embarked on a globetrotting investment roadshow to drum up more crypto investment deals that critics say pose conflicts of interest for the president and national security threats.

“The Trump brothers’ efforts have been a whopping success,” Reuters said in an Oct. 28 special report, “Inside the Trump family’s global crypto cash machine.”

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In the first half of 2025, the Trump Organization’s income soared 17-fold to $864 million from $51 million a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations, which it said were based on the president’s official disclosures, property records, financial records released in court cases, crypto trade information and other sources.

“These people are not pouring money into coffers of the Trump family business because of the brothers’ acumen,” Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University, told Reuters. “They are doing it because they want freedom from legal constraints and impunity that only the president can deliver.”