Retail investors are in a panic selling, while institutions are quietly laying out a differentiated market.

The recent market crash has once again showcased the classic divergence between institutional and retail investor behaviors. This transfer of chips has traditionally been seen as a signal that the market may be approaching a phase bottom.

At the moment of the sharp decline in ETH prices, BitMine, the largest institutional holder of Ethereum, not only did not reduce its holdings but instead increased its position by tens of thousands of ETH, worth over $100 million. Its chairman, Tom Lee, even defined this decline as a good opportunity for a washout and buying. A similar situation has also appeared in the Bitcoin market. Data shows that during the market panic, BlackRock's IBIT was the only U.S. spot BTC ETF that recorded net inflows, indicating that institutional investors are taking advantage of the ETF channel to accumulate at lower prices.

On-chain data shows that after Trump announced tariffs, several mainstream tokens, including Chainlink, Uniswap, and Dogecoin, experienced significant accumulation by whales. On-chain data for XRP also indicates that, despite large-scale liquidations in the derivatives market, large holders quietly accumulated $2.54 billion worth of XRP during this period.

Deutsche Bank's latest report provides a macro logical support for this behavior among institutions. The report points out that Bitcoin is increasingly being seen as digital gold, used as a tool to hedge against macro uncertainty and currency depreciation, just like gold. #ETH #BTC #PI #美联储降息预期升温