The price of Bitcoin is hovering around $40,000, under pressure from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC)'s continuous liquidation of assets.

Since the launch of the Bitcoin Spot ETF on January 11, GBTC has moved nearly 113,000 Bitcoin (BTC) out of its wallet, equivalent to approximately 100,000 BTC at present. Most of these Bitcoins were transferred to Coinbase Prime in preparation for sale, according to data compiled by Arkham.

Although the scale of liquidation is huge, not all of the Bitcoin leaving GBTC is due to investor withdrawals. A portion may be due to normal trading activity.

However, the main reason for GBTC's rapid liquidation is believed to be the high management fee, which is up to 1.5%, higher than 1% of other Bitcoin ETFs. This has led many investors to switch to more attractive funds.

Pressure from GBTC is one of the main factors driving Bitcoin's recent decline, down to $39,800 at the time of writing.

The hopes of Bitcoin bulls were momentarily buoyed earlier this week when a CoinDesk report on Monday said the FTX estate had unloaded its 22 million share GBTC holding. With this non-economic whale seller out of the way, bulls hoped there might be a slowdown in GBTC exits. However, this has not happened, as evidenced by this morning's movement of 19,000 bitcoin to exchange.

In conclusion, the liquidation of assets by the world's largest Bitcoin fund is exerting significant pressure on the market, making it difficult for Bitcoin to break through the $40,000 mark.