99% of everyone who was going to sell or short was obliterated in, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2021, and just then.
This is why I think maybe a lot of 'BTC' on exchanges are fBTCTM f= fake, so fakeBTC
There just are not enough sellers left to push the market down in any meaningful way.
And you're right. Institutional investors are simply going to strengthen the long term long positions that exist within the market.
There are a ton of demand for BTC as a store of value, away from the imminent fiat collapse. And leveraged shorters will definitely be a lot more careful now that they've seen what mass retail interest can do in terms of inducing a short squeeze (think GME and silver more recently).
This is why I feel very confident in the $20k support holding - there are simply too many long term bulls, as you said, for the markets to move meaningfully downwards in any sizable fashion in the medium to long run.
Yes currently there are not enough sellers to push the price down but remember what happened back in Nov 2018? Basically the $6K support has been holding for mostly the entire 2018 year. November was usually a very bullish month for bitcoin. So everybody was waiting for BTC to start rallying in November. And it traded sideways for most of the years because people refused to buy and refused to sell.
Then what happened in the middle of November? Basically it hit $5500, people assumed it cant go lower but it went to like $4500, and then again people assumed it couldn't go lower and it went to $3000 or so before finally bottoming.
So after $6K broke, all of a sudden tons of sellers appeared. You could verify this by looking at the amount of BTC sent to exchanges in that month. People were scared and they dumped BTC at the low.
So supply is low now because price is high, people want $50K or $100K bitcoin before they sell. However if price starts to head the other way, say below $10K then all of a sudden supply will increase in the markets due to people panicking. That's the best time to buy.