Institutions kept buying as DEX volumes slid 20% in the past week.

The week of Apr 27–May 3 showed a clear split between on-chain activity and institutional conviction. Stablecoin inflows came in at a modest +$173M, DEX spot volume fell roughly 20%, and perpetuals also declined — pointing to a broad cooldown in retail and speculative trading.

On the institutional side, seven companies added a combined 620 <a class="ticker-mention" href="/en-US/token/btc">BTC</a> ($49.45M) to their treasuries. The standout move came from Bitmine, backed by Fundstrat&#x27;s Tom Lee, which purchased another 101,745 <a class="ticker-mention" href="/en-US/token/eth">ETH</a> worth approximately $238M — an aggressive accumulation pace. Strategy, Michael Saylor&#x27;s firm, sat out the week entirely with no new BTC purchases.

The divergence is worth watching: thin stablecoin inflows and falling DEX volumes typically precede either a continued consolidation or a sharp directional move once fresh capital re-enters.