Foreign media reports that after Bitcoin fell to a new low for the year this week, the market is debating where the selling pressure came from. AMBCrypto reports that BTC once dipped to $59,100, breaking below the $60,000 support level, and analysts subsequently placed the next price reference around $53,000.

The focus of the debate

Jim Cramer blamed the decline on Michael Saylor, but CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju believes the pressure is more likely from early whales. He points out that over the past two years, OG whales have sold far more BTC than Saylor alone.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas agrees with this assessment. He stated that the real pressure in the market comes from existing holders rather than individual buyers. Ju also noted that if Strategy hadn't continued its buying spree, the price of BTC could have been much lower.

Old suppliers are selling at high prices.

The article mentions that there were indeed multiple rounds of selling during the price surge in 2024 and 2025. By November 2025, selling pressure had risen to approximately 1 million BTC, indicating that some long-term holders were exiting at higher levels.

After entering 2026, the net change in old supply turned positive. The article did not directly interpret this as active buying, but suggested that addresses holding for more than 6 months were beginning to shift more towards long-term holding.

Macroeconomic pressures combined with a correction

This pullback also occurred after relatively strong macroeconomic data. AMBCrypto stated that Friday's even stronger US employment data, coupled with already fragile market sentiment, amplified the decline in BTC.

As of press time, BTC has returned to around $60,000. The article argues that the market is still debating whether this decline was due to early holders reducing their positions or insufficient institutional buying.