In the past three months, publicly listed companies globally bought a total of 5,900 BTC. I thought I was seeing things. Back in July last year, these companies gobbled up 89,000 BTC in just one month. And now, three months combined don’t even hit 6,000—barely a fraction of that. I used to really believe in this narrative: publicly listed companies putting BTC on their balance sheets, retail selling pressure permanently absorbed, and the crypto space transforming from a casino into a vault. Whenever a company announced they were buying BTC, I’d follow suit and increase my position. My boldest move was chasing at $108K with $120K, and now I’m sitting on a 30% unrealized loss. Later, I finally figured it out: these companies’ money comes from issuing debt and raising equity. Debt requires interest payments, and equity depends on stock prices. When BTC’s price stagnates, the premium disappears, and they can’t issue the next round of debt—so where’s the money to buy more? That’s why it’s just 5,900 BTC in three months—they’re out of cash. This cycle, from $110K crashing to $77K, there are still people in my group shouting every day about waiting for institutions to buy the dip. But institutional appetite is now only one-fifteenth of what it was in a single month last year. They’re busy worrying about how to roll over their debt. If you’re waiting for institutions to save the market, what you’ll get is institutions lining up to sell BTC to pay off their debts.