Strange how BTC demand seems dismal on the open market but there are buyers to move 50,000 BTC via auction.
I've said this before and still believe it to be true - bigger fish are becoming whales and are keeping the spot price down.
If you've done any research on commodities market manipulation (gold, silver etc.) you will know that manipulating the spot price of something as small as BTC is trivial.
I fully expect an all-exchange pump to coincide with ETF release.
Thereafter the whales will probably take serious profits and move into 2.0 tech. Repeat.
How are they keeping the spot price down?
The mysterious 'they' buy X coins off-market and sell Y coins on-market, where X >> Y.
Rallies are clipped, bottoms are bought and sell pressure seems to be just enough to keep things at a simmer.
It wouldn't take much to spark another media-fueled frenzy that, considering how many fiat pipelines have opened up, would get out of control fast.
Of course this all speculation; I have nothing to go one but a feeling.
My feeling is simply that the next leg up is being held back until the ETFs are open for business.