Those who rushed to bitcoin over the past two years are now exiting the market, which is not a good sign for it.
Publicly traded companies, once considered long-term investors, are increasingly selling bitcoin as prolonged price weakness strains balance sheets and strategic plans.
Take Empery Digital (EMPD), which announced Wednesday that it sold 370 BTC at an average price of $66,632, generating $24.7 million, leaving the company with 2,989 BTC. The company used a portion of the proceeds to fully repay its outstanding term loan and also released approximately 1,800 BTC that had previously been held as collateral.
Empery Digital began building its bitcoin treasury in July 2025 and has accumulated a peak position of around 4,000 BTC. The company’s shares have fallen 75% from their 2025 all-time high of $15.80.
Genius Group (GNS), an AI-powered bitcoin-focused education company, which held as much as 440 BTC in March last year, has completely liquidated its stock. Recently, she sold her remaining 84 BTC to pay off $8.5 million in debt. The company said it will resume holding its cash in bitcoin when it believes market conditions are more favorable.
This trend is not limited to mid-sized players. Riot Platforms (RIOT), one of the largest publicly traded bitcoin mining companies in the United States, has also reportedly made sales, according to blockchain data tracked by Lookonchain.
The company reportedly moved 500 BTC for around $34.13 million on Wednesday as it continues to dip into its bitcoin treasury to fund its pivot to AI and high-performance computing, a strategy increasingly seen in the mining industry.
Riot sold approximately $200 million worth of bitcoin in the last two months of 2025. Riot Platforms accumulated bitcoin continuously through its mining operations, rather than adopting a single start date for a cash flow strategy, reaching a peak holding of over 19,000 BTC. The company now holds around 17,500 BTC.
Meanwhile, the Bhutan government continues to reduce its bitcoin holdings, having sold a total of 3,103 BTC. A single transaction made on March 30 would have liquidated 375 BTC, further reducing its position, according to Glassnode data. The government of Bhutan has built up its bitcoin holdings over several years through state-backed mining operations, reaching a peak of over 13,000 BTC in October 2024.
While the recent selloff trend is certainly disappointing for the bulls, all is not lost yet.
Public companies holding bitcoin reserves still hold approximately 1,164,800 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net. This represents more than 5% of the total BTC supply of 21 million.
At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading at $66,500, down more than 2% since midnight UTC, according to CoinDesk data.
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