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According to data from River, companies and funds are gobbling up bitcoin at a rate that far outstrips new supply from miners. If these flows hold, the market’s available coins could shrink quickly, pushing liquidity into the hands of a few big buyers.

Institutions Outpace Miners

Reports have disclosed that publicly traded bitcoin treasury firms and private businesses bought about 1,755 BTC per day on average in 2025. Exchange-traded funds and other investment vehicles added roughly 1,430 BTC per day.

A Potential Supply Shock Looms

Miners’ output has been fairly steady, but when demand beats supply by multiples, market dynamics change. Analysts are now pointing to the possibility of tighter market conditions if exchange reserves keep dropping while institutions continue to hold.

Some market watchers say that such an imbalance could become a bullish trigger for price. Others warn that thin liquidity on exchanges can make prices volatile when flows reverse.

Businesses are absorbing bitcoin at 4x the rate it is mined. pic.twitter.com/41N8KN6sen

— River (@River) August 27, 2025

Who Is Buying And How Much

Reports show that bitcoin treasury companies acquired 159,100 BTC in Q2 2025 alone. Businesses now hold over 1 million BTC in total.

Strategy, led by Michael Saylor, stands out. Based on publicly available figures, Strategy holds 632,457 BTC in its corporate reserve, making it one of the largest single holders in the market.

‘Synthetically’ Hoarding Supply

Adam Livingston, author of “The Bitcoin Age and The Great Harvest,” said that Strategy is single-handedly “synthetically” halving bitcoin through its rapid accumulation.

Strategy is synthetically halving Bitcoin and will set the cost of capital for the next 100 years.

Most people think the Bitcoin supply curve is sacred.

Fixed. Immutable. Untouchable.

They’re wrong.

Strategy is manually rewriting Bitcoin’s scarcity schedule right now with…

— Adam Livingston (@AdamBLiv) April 27, 2025

The claim rests on the idea that when a big company pulls coins out of circulation and stores them long term, it reduces what’s available to traders and investors — a supply effect similar in result, if not in mechanism, to protocol halving events.

How Purchases Are Done Matters

Strategy’s corporate treasury officer, Shirish Jajodia, has pushed back against the idea that their buying moves short-term prices.

Jajodia said the firm spreads purchases over-the-counter, away from exchange order books, to avoid sudden price shifts.

Demand Quadruples Mining Supply, Raising Supply Shock Fears

Companies and funds are buying over 3,000 BTC daily while miners create only 450. Businesses now hold over 1 million BTC, with Strategy alone controlling 632,457.

River’s data suggests this rapid accumulation could spark a supply squeeze, even if OTC purchases reduce immediate price impact.

With exchange reserves thinning, the risk of sharper price swings remains on the horizon.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

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