Bitcoin Flows: Why Big Transfers Made the US a Net Buyer

Right, bull runners, between the summer of 2025 and the summer of 2026, something happened to Bitcoin in America that most people holding it never got told about. The small transfers, the kind you and I make from our phones, were heading out. And the giant ones, $10 million or more at a time, were coming in. Those big transfers on their own brought in around 53,000 Bitcoin, which is mad because it made America a net buyer of Bitcoin from the rest of the world for the first time since 2022. And that's Chainalysis, the blockchain tracking firm, putting it out in mid-October.

So, Bitcoin holders, is Wall Street buying the Bitcoin you're selling? And if you own Bitcoin, the big money took in 53,000 coins while small transfers went out. So, are you their exit liquidity? If you've not heard that one, it just means you're the one person on the other end handing your coins over when the big boys want them. And the banks are being scored on Bitcoin, too.

And Fidelity hit 77%. So, check yours, your own buys and sells because I'll show you how. By the end, you'll know who was really doing the buying, whether the banks are actually coming or if it's a sales pitch, and how to tell in 2 minutes on your phone whether you've been the one handing your own coins over. And hang on for the first link in the description because I'll come back to it in a few minutes. It's for anyone who's fed up being the last to find out.

And for a lot of people, it's turned out to be a proper turning point. My name's Rory, and I've been trading crypto and forex since 2020, and it's given me a full-time income and the freedom to travel the world while I do it. So, why would ordinary people send Bitcoin out? Well, I can't see inside anyone's head, but look at our everyday money. When the US figures came out on the 14th of October.

Prices in September were up 3.7% on a year before, which was hotter than people expected. So, $100 of shopping in September 2025 cost you about $103.70 a year on. And when the bills go up, a lot of people sell a bit of what they've got, a bit of Bitcoin for the car or for Christmas. And look, I get it. But the big funds aren't selling to pay the gas bill, are they?

Meanwhile, Michael Saylor, the man behind strategy, a company sitting on a huge pile of Bitcoin, went on Bloomberg on the 13th of October and said this.

We've got a very favorable regulatory environment. We've got banking adoption accelerating. We've got uh tokenized securities and the digital assets space accelerating. We've got the formation of and the strengthening of digital credit networks and of course banking credit coming online. And all these things are very auspicious for the asset.

Banking credit coming online, which basically means banks lending you money with your Bitcoin as a security, a bit like a pawn shop. And that to me is a bit to watch because to lend against your own coins, somebody else has to be holding them. Like if you're bullish, let's run it.

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April runners, welcome back. So, think about who's on the other end when you sell. You've never seen them, do you? It's just a button in an app. And that's how a lot of us end up selling on the worst day and buying back higher.

I've been there. Back in 2022, the drop from the top landed in my own portfolio, too. So, I know how it feels. Am I telling you to buy Bitcoin? No.

There may be better opportunities for your situation. But if you're holding $50,000 or more in crypto that's just sitting there, that's what we saw at our Altcoin Pro. We help you put the crypto you already hold to work in full self-custody with your own keys, so it can't be flagged, frozen, or wiped out. Hit the first link in the description, watch the short video, press the button, fill in the short form, and book your free 15-minute call. If you're watching on your phone, just tap more under the video, and it's the first link there.

Someone on the team will look at what you actually hold, and if you're already well set up, they'll tell you that, too. And book it before the 11th of November, when the index firm MSCI is due to publish its final list on whether strategy gets dropped. Either way, the headlines will be loud, so get it sorted before then. So, let's go back to that report because the detail matters. Chainalysis looks at where crypto moves around the world, and its numbers cover July 2025 to June 2026.

Being a net buyer just means more Bitcoin flowed into American platforms than flowed out of them. And it's not the American government buying it, by the way. It's everyone in the country added together, the funds, the firms, and people like us. And Chainalysis put it like this, "America is exporting digital dollars and importing Bitcoin." And the bit that really jumped out at me is that America's share of all that Bitcoin actively in the world went up every single time they checked, from when the Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024. If you don't know what those are, an ETF is basically a fund you buy like a normal share, and it holds the Bitcoin for you.

So, once Wall Street could buy Bitcoin the easy way, America's slice of the action started growing, and it got bigger every time they measured it. And the digital dollar bit makes sense when you think about it. People abroad want dollars, and a lot of them can't get a US bank account, so they hold stablecoins. Americans can get dollars at any bank. So, they're the ones bringing Bitcoin instead.

So, is Wall Street literally buying your coins? Well, nobody can see that, and I'm not going to pretend I can. It's not like your Bitcoin goes straight into a BlackRock wallet. But, when the small transfers head one way and the $10 million ones the other, somebody's on each side of that, aren't they? Think of a car boot sale.

If everyone's dumping their stuff at 7:00 in the morning, the dealer is turning up early with a van aren't doing them a favor. They're getting a bargain. And the side with the time and the patience isn't usually the one selling to cover their shopping, right? So, what about the banks? Well, Strategy built a scorecard for them back in July, and it marks 25 of the biggest banks and money firms on things like buying and holding Bitcoin for customers, lending against it, and stable coins, which are just digital dollars.

On the 13th of October, Strategy said the overall score went up to 34%. Fidelity's way out in front at 77%, and it's set up to hold Bitcoin for big clients back in 2018. So, that's no surprise. And JP Morgan is up to 47. That's the bank whose boss called Bitcoin a fraud back in 2017.

And here he is on CNBC in January 2023.

Do you just think the whole thing just is is going to zero?

Going to zero and it's fake?

Bitcoin itself is a is a hyped-up fraud.

It's a pet rock.

To that really?

Yeah, of course. Yeah.

A pet rock, he called it, which to me is crazy because the bank that slagged it off ends up being marked on how well it handles it. And even Strategy's own post says it's early. Bank of America's on 28%, which is a long way off the pace. And Strategy's boss, Fung Lee, went further in a Bitcoin Magazine interview back in September.

Brian, so you're going to see a set of rules come out over the course of the next month from these groups, and that's going to pave the way for banks to enter into crypto custody, crypto tokenization, stable coins. It's going to be a mad dash in the next quarter.

A mad dash, he said. And after that index update, he was quoted saying the next 12 months could bring the biggest jump in bank adoption history. Now, remember who's saying it. That's the boss of a company sitting on a mountain of Bitcoin. So, of course he'd say that.

It's a forecast, not a fact, and I'd treat it that way. But, here's why it matters for your money. When the banks hold your Bitcoin or lend against it, they set the rules. They decide what you can move and when. And even Fidelity's own explainer video puts it like this.

Think of third-party [music] custodianship as a safety deposit box where a third-party institution holds your valuables and keeps them [music] safe for you. There may be support if they are lost or stolen, but there also may be restrictions on [music] how and when you can access them.

Restrictions on how and when, and fair play to them for saying it. They're also honest that holding your own keys is riskier if you lose them, and that is true. But, if your bank's ever frozen a payment for a security check while you sat on hold, you know exactly how that feels when it's your own money. So, the more the big boys move in, the more it's worth asking who's actually holding the keys to yours. So, here's one for your phone, and it'll take you 2 minutes.

Open the app where you buy your crypto and find your transaction history. On most apps, it's under your account or your statement. Set the dates to cover a full 12 months, then add up two numbers. How much Bitcoin did you buy, and how much did you sell or send out? If the second number's bigger, you were a net seller, same as those small transfers.

And you don't have to show anyone. It's just for you. And if you hold Bitcoin through an ETF in a brokerage account or a pension, you won't see any coins at all, just fund units. So, do the same check on the fund. Then do the bit that stinks.

Look at the dates of your sales and ask yourself, "What was going on that week?" Was it a scary headline, a bill, or a big red day? Because if the answer is a scary headline, that's not a plan, it's a reaction. And that's exactly the gap the big money lives in, isn't it? So, jot those days down because next time that feeling hits, you'll recog Right, the other side. Because I'm not going to sell you a dream.

First, that chain analysis data covers 12 months ending in June 2026. Flows can turn route. And working out which country a transfer belongs to is an estimate, not a receipt. Second, the big players sell, too. Back in June and early July, Strategy sold some of his Bitcoin, about 3 and 1/2 thousand coins, to pay his dividends.

And Phong Le had told CNBC back in May, "When they do it."

And ultimately, I believe in math over ideology. And at the point where selling Bitcoin versus selling equity to pay a dividend is better for our Bitcoin per share and for our common shareholders, we'll do it.

"Math over ideology," he said. And when Bloomberg asked Saylor about the selling on the 13th of October, here's what he said.

The way to think of our company is we're a structured finance company. So, on any given day, we might buy Bitcoin or sell Bitcoin. We might buy dollars or sell dollars. We might buy equity or sell equity. We could sell MSTR or buy it back.

We might buy credit STRC, we might sell it. Um to the extent that we can swap equity for capital, capital for for cash, cash

And the Bloomberg host said that selling spooked the market because this is the man who told people to hold forever. So, the biggest Bitcoin believer on the planet says he might buy or sell on any given day. The big money isn't your mate. It's doing a job. Third, being early doesn't mean being right.

Bitcoin hit around $126,000 back in October 2025, and on the 16th of October 2026, it was around 81 and 1/2 thousand. That's down over a third. So, anyone who bought near the top, big or small, is sitting on a loss. Fourth, strategy itself has a problem. MSCI is moving to treat firms like it is not real operating businesses, and JP Morgan reckons getting dropped could mean about 2.8 billion dollars of selling in strategy shares.

And fifth, that bank scorecard is strategy zone. It's a company with a huge pile of Bitcoin marking everyone else on how much they like Bitcoin. And to be fair to the banks, a big regulated bank holding Bitcoin isn't all bad. If you've never held your own keys, it might feel safer. But, safer and yours aren't the same thing.

And I know what some of you are thinking. Hang on, Rory. If the big money's buying, shouldn't I just copy them? And look, nobody knows where the price goes next. Not me, not Saylor, not JP Morgan.

But, you can stop being the one who sells in a panic and finds out later who was on the other side. Because the one thing the big money's got that most of us haven't is a plan written down before the headline hits. So, what's my honest take? The data's real. Big transfers brought Bitcoin into America, and small ones sent it out.

The banks are moving in, slowly. But, that doesn't mean the price only goes up, and it doesn't mean the big boys are looking after you. It means you need a plan that's yours with your own keys. And that's where a plan earns its keep. There's a member of ours called James who came to us owing the IRS $20,000 in back taxes money from earlier in the years he had to find.

The team walked him through a framework. He used it on the portfolio he was building and he cleared that whole $20,000. And then he went and bought his first ever house. That's James' result. It's not typical and I can't promise you the same, but he's not on his own in there.

Inside there are people from every sort of background. A lot of them just trying to protect what they've built and they get weekly calls with our research team and one-to-one coaching. So if you've got 50 grand or more in crypto that's just sitting there, it's the first link in the description and get the call booked before MSCI's list lands on the 11th of November. So next time a headline makes you want to hit sell, stop and ask yourself one thing. Who's on the other side of this and why are they so happy to take it?

Tell me in the comments. When you added it all up on your phone, were you a net buyer or a net seller? And look, none of this is financial advice, guys. It's just me after a lot of digging. Crypto carries risk and what's happened before is no guarantee of what comes next.

So stick with me, subscribe and there's a new one every day. Thanks for watching, guys. Keep your head, stack with purpose and I'll keep you posted.

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