Bitcoin’s price crosses $80K, but network activity drops – Trouble ahead?

Bitcoin’s [BTC] ongoing rally may be influenced only by a small group of investors. That is why some degree of fragility can be associated with the world’s largest cryptocurrency right now.

The next move will be highly dependent on whether demand returns en masse.

Big players demand more Bitcoin!

Corporate Bitcoin holdings have gone up in Q1 2026, reaching 1.15 million BTC according to Bitwise. That’s a 4.6% increase quarter-over-quarter, with the same now accounting for 5.47% of the total supply.

Meanwhile, the total value of these holdings dropped to $77 billion – Down 18.9% over the same period.

Source: Bitwise

Public company participation has been steady too, with 187 firms holding Bitcoin. That’s a slight 2% decline QoQ. The bulk of holdings is still concentrated, led by Strategy, followed by XXI, MARA Holdings, and Metaplanet.

There’s been a rise in buying through 2024 and into early 2026, with over 50,000 BTC added in Q1 alone.

Traders, stay cautious!

Keeping all that aside, sentiment is only just beginning to rise back up. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price was attempting to hold above $80,000, with the unified sentiment index moving back into the positive zone. This, after months of weakness.

Source: X

The index (ranging from -100 to +100) showed that the market was slightly in “greed.” That hinted at increasing belief among investors, so they’d hold and not feel the need to sell.

However, there was a similar move in January. At the time, sentiment entered the greed zone before falling back into another price drop.

Is this rally truly strong?

Finally, Bitcoin’s network activity dropped to two-year lows, even with the price moving back above $80,000.

Daily active addresses were holding at around 531,000, with only 203,000 new wallets being created each day. These numbers are significantly below previous cycle highs. This lack of participation has persisted even during the recent recovery.

Source: Santiment

Typically, rising prices are held up by increasing user activity. That pattern is missing here so far.

Instead, the rally seems to be powered by a smaller group of participants. Such moves usually tend to be fragile. Especially since limited demand reduces the market’s ability to take selling pressure if conditions change.