The outflow of speculative investments triggered a decrease in the price of Bitcoin (BTC).

According to Glassnode's research, short-term investors began to take profits last week. As a result, by December 18-19, the price of BTC came under pressure and dropped below the $41,000 mark.

Speculators played a key role in the bull market's rise. In the first half of December, they actively invested in digital currency, leading to its rise to $45,000.

Traders were expecting the launch of spot crypto funds and Bitcoin-ETF in the American market.

However, the postponement of the SEC decision to January forced speculators to sell some of their cryptocurrency assets, as emphasized by Glassnode.

Whales prevented a major drop in Bitcoin's price this week. According to WhaleMap's data, on December 18, there was an increase in the number of transactions exceeding $1 million in the network.

Addresses with balances of 1000 BTC or more began actively buying coins that speculators were withdrawing to exchanges for sale. Additionally, small wallets with balances of less than 1 BTC showed high activity, as reported by Santiment.

The research showed that small investors accumulated 1.42 million Bitcoins in December, accounting for approximately 7.3% of the total market supply of this asset.

Currently, whales control 6.57 million BTC. Addresses with balances between 100 and 1000 BTC, on the other hand, sold a portion of their cryptocurrency reserves, as indicated in the report.