🎉 Share Your 2025 Year-End Summary & Win $10,000 Sharing Rewards!
Reflect on your year with Gate and share your report on Square for a chance to win $10,000!
👇 How to Join:
1️⃣ Click to check your Year-End Summary: https://www.gate.com/competition/your-year-in-review-2025
2️⃣ After viewing, share it on social media or Gate Square using the "Share" button
3️⃣ Invite friends to like, comment, and share. More interactions, higher chances of winning!
🎁 Generous Prizes:
1️⃣ Daily Lucky Winner: 1 winner per day gets $30 GT, a branded hoodie, and a Gate × Red Bull tumbler
2️⃣ Lucky Share Draw: 10
#GT #BTC #XRP #ETH #DOGE
Both Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen a decline in their usage in the retail sector, with a slowdown in network activity.
The second quarter may signal the start of a more significant correction cycle.
The number of unique wallets and active addresses associated with Bitcoin [BTC] has slowed down, especially those with balances greater than $1, since the bull cycle following 2020.
This stagnation aligns with the adoption curve model, indicating that institutional accumulation has led to the consolidation of BTC in fewer high-value wallets.
The shift in adopting cryptocurrencies
This means that large entities, such as MicroStrategy (MSTR), have concentrated their investments, reducing the need for a wide distribution of wallets. As a result, broader distribution among individual participants has decreased.
Ethereum [ETH] has followed this trend, registering its lowest adoption rate in 2025. With increasing institutional dominance, on-chain metrics may become less reliable for assessing future adoption of cryptocurrency. The implications of this structural shift on the market could be significant. Institutional wallets are increasingly influencing liquidity cycles. For example, the sharp decline in Bitcoin's price to $77,000 in February was directly related to the continued flows of Bitcoin (ETFs).
Market fluctuations and future predictions
On February 25, Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded net outflows of $1.4 billion, leading to a price drop of 5.11% over 24 hours. Similarly, Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) remained in a continuous selling state, struggling to attract new inflows.
The most important thing is that these outflows from institutions coincided with the aggressive tariff policies pursued by Trump, adding a macroeconomic layer to the volatility of the cryptocurrency market.
With the arrival of the second quarter, it seems that the management is in a complete reset mode. The failure of Bitcoin and Ethereum to replicate their recovery in the first quarter raises the question: Will the second quarter witness a grim bearish cycle?
During the past two weeks, Bitcoin has reclaimed $88,000 as Bitcoin exchange-traded funds returned to net inflows. MSTR benefited from this momentum, accumulating 6,911 Bitcoin valued at $584 million, with an average acquisition price of $86,000.
Ethereum followed suit, briefly regaining the $2000 level. However, its continued consolidation, along with declining network adoption and weak institutional flows, indicates underlying structural weakness.
If Bitcoin faced resistance and retraced (BTC), Ethereum's price movement (ETH) may be subject to a deeper corrective phase.
Weak fundamentals and selective accumulation by high-value wallets may act as a headwind to the rises of both Bitcoin and Ethereum in the second quarter.
Historically, the power of Bitcoin in the first quarter has stimulated a rise in altcoin prices, but the price movements during this cycle have shown variation. What is the main factor that distinguishes it? Increasing macroeconomic volatility.
If institutional capital flows fail to offset this volatility in the upcoming quarter, both Bitcoin and Ethereum may face distribution pressure and a delay in the continuation of the broad trend.