Bitcoin retreats and loses value in a scenario of high inflation

The cryptocurrency market has once again faced strong volatility in recent days. Bitcoin accumulated a drop of more than 12% in the last week after the disclosure that Michael Saylor, considered the largest public investor in cryptocurrency through the company Strategy, sold 32 bitcoins for around US$2 million.

The reason was the need to finance the dividend of a share in the company, STRC. Despite representing a small portion of the more than 840,000 bitcoins held by the company, the movement was enough to increase investor insecurity and put even more pressure on assets.

According to Bernardo Pascowitch, presenter of Resenha do Dinheiro, the market reacted not necessarily to the volume sold, but to the symbolism of the operation.

"Saylor's biggest fear is that Saylor will start selling a more relevant portion of Strategy's position in bitcoin, which could have a much greater impact on prices. As he had already commented on the need to prepare the market, this small sale ended up being interpreted by investors as a possible sign of larger movements in the future", assesses Pascowitch.

In addition to the concentration of bitcoins in the hands of Strategy, investors also follow the company's debt structure, which used debt issues to expand its exposure to cryptocurrency.

"Strategy also carries a very large debt issued to buy bitcoin, and the average price of these acquisitions was above the current value of the cryptocurrency. This helps explain why the market is so sensitive to any sales movement", explains Marilia Fontes, founding partner of Nord Investimentos.

The high concentration of bitcoins in the hands of a few institutional investors goes against precisely one of the pillars that marked the creation of cryptocurrency: decentralization.

"Bitcoin emerged with the proposal of being a decentralized asset, without depending on governments, companies or specific people. When the market becomes so dependent on an investor or large institutions, this ends up weakening part of this original logic", observes Bernardo.

Marilia assesses that, despite the concern in the short term, an eventual dispersion of this concentration could even benefit the market in the long term.

"There is a risk when such a large amount of bitcoins is concentrated in the hands of a single company or person. If this position begins to be distributed over time, this could even improve the dynamics and reduce this excessive dependence", he states.

In addition, the crypto sector also faces a more challenging scenario in 2026, marked by high interest rates, persistent inflation and lower global appetite for risky assets.

"We are in the period of crypto winter. It has already been practically a whole year of declines and there is a greater probability that bitcoin will remain under pressure throughout 2026", he adds.

Dinheiro Review
Carried out with the support of B3 and the investment manager BlackRock, the program is presented by Thiago Godoy, the "Financial Daddy", Marilia Fontes, founding partner of Nord Investimentos; Bernardo Pascowitch, founder and CEO of Yubb, proposes a light, direct and uncomplicated approach to topics related to financial education and investments. The attraction addresses the main themes of the economy weekly with the informality of a conversation between friends - without compromising on analysis.

The Money Review airs every Friday, at 7pm, on the CNN Money YouTube channel and on Sundays, at 3pm, on CNN Brasil.

Source: CNN