Recently, Bitcoin's price movement has been quite awkward—unable to go up or down, with volatility resembling an electrocardiogram's ups and downs. Looking closely at the market, it’s actually privacy coins like ZEC and BCH that have brought some vitality. But the underlying issues are not hard to spot: the whales hold absolute power, directly manipulating the market; contract positions are piled high, and the actual spot holdings have long been concentrated in the hands of a few major players.

What’s even more concerning is that institutional participation is clearly declining. Large institutions like MicroStrategy are now buying less. What does this indicate? First, the bubble is indeed large; second, no one dares to take the risk. Major players can't sell—once they start dumping, it’s a bloodbath; if they don’t sell, the market has even less vitality. The entire ecosystem is stuck in a deadlock: retail investors are waiting for institutions to buy in, and institutions are waiting too. The result is everyone waiting to eat others’ leftovers. Spot liquidity is drying up, and over-leveraged contracts make it very difficult to break the market stalemate in the short term.