Bitcoin's apparent demand has slid to its weakest level in nearly six months, according to a CryptoQuant analyst flagged by Cointelegraph on May 25, 2026. The metric is approaching -147,000 BTC, the most negative print since December 2025.
The reading lands while Bitcoin trades at $77,316 as of May 25, 2026, up 0.9% on the day but still showing no sustained bid. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index sits at 40, in neutral territory.
The metric, and why it is in red
CryptoQuant's apparent demand model compares net new supply mined over a rolling window against changes in long-term holder behavior. When miners produce coins and long-term holders distribute at the same time, with no offsetting demand from new buyers, the metric goes negative. A reading of -147,000 BTC says the market is absorbing far less than it is supplying.
The previous low at this magnitude printed in December 2025, around the bottom of last year's correction when spot dipped under $80,000. The current reading puts the demand picture back in that zone, even though spot has not collapsed in the same way.
Price is holding, demand is not
The setup is unusual. BTC is down 0.5% on the week according to live market data, with the 7-day change at +0.54%. Ether is at $2,106, off 0.4% on the day, and Solana is at $85.90, flat over 24 hours. None of the major caps are crashing.
But the supply absorption picture has been deteriorating for weeks. Spot ETF flows have been mixed, with alt ETFs picking up some inflows on May 21 while BTC and ETH spot products bled. Treasury buyers, the dominant marginal bid through much of 2024 and 2025, have gone quiet: Michael Saylor recently called a Strategy sell-down before year-end "not unlikely," and SoftBank exited its Twenty One position after a $1B treasury bet.
When the largest discretionary buyers stop pressing, the apparent demand metric is one of the first places it shows up.
December 2025 as a reference point
The last comparable reading came in late December 2025. At that point, BTC was rebounding off a wick into the high $70,000s, fear levels were extreme rather than neutral, and forced selling from over-leveraged longs was clearing the book.
Today's reading is different in character. Fear and Greed at 40 is not panic. Funding is not deeply negative across major perp venues. There has been no single-hour liquidation cascade comparable to the $100M longs wiped during Bitcoin's break below $75,000 earlier this month.
What is similar is the absence of fresh demand. The structural buyers, ETFs, public-company treasuries, and large discretionary funds, have not been refilling at this level. CryptoQuant's metric is capturing that.
The cycle question
Bears will read this as confirmation that the cycle peak is behind. Apparent demand turning this negative without a price capitulation has, historically, preceded multi-month grinding declines rather than sharp V-shaped reversals. The 2022 cycle bottom was preceded by similar quiet supply absorption breakdowns before the final flush in November of that year.
Bulls will note that the metric is mean-reverting and that the December 2025 low marked a tradeable bottom within weeks. The argument there: the CLARITY Act has momentum in Congress, institutional ETF infrastructure is now in place, and any genuine demand impulse would show up on the metric within days.
Neither view is settled today. The data point is one reading from one analyst.
The market context
Macro is not helping. The Fed minutes earlier this month flipped the rate-cut trade into a hike-risk problem. Tether's $141B Treasury pile keeps stablecoin risk tightly coupled to US debt, which itself trades at uncomfortable yields. None of that supports a clean demand impulse into spot BTC.
That said, May has been a month of headline volatility rather than directional moves. BTC's range has been roughly $74,000 to $80,000 for three weeks. Apparent demand at -147,000 BTC suggests that range resolves lower rather than higher unless a fresh buyer shows up.
Overview
Bitcoin's apparent demand metric, tracked by CryptoQuant, has slid to roughly -147,000 BTC, the most bearish reading since December 2025. Spot is at $77,316 as of May 25, 2026, but the supply side is dominating. The metric reflects a buyer strike from ETFs, treasuries, and large discretionary funds rather than panic selling. The print does not guarantee a deeper drop, but it does say that the current price level is not pulling in fresh structural demand. Watch for either a flow reversal in ETFs or a Fed pivot to break the stalemate.
