Bitcoin’s slide below $70,000 is landing differently with long-time holders than with institutions, according to Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley.
He said in a CNBC interview that while veteran holders are feeling uncertain, institutional investors are seeing an opportunity to buy at levels they thought they had missed.
‘New crack at the apple’
Horsley said:
“I think long-time holders are feeling unsure, and I think the new investor set, institutions are sort of getting a new crack at the apple.”
He added that some institutional buyers are “seeing prices they thought that they’d forever missed.”
Macro selloff pressure
Horsley described bitcoin as being in a bear market and “getting swept up” with other macro assets as investors “sell everything that is liquid.”
At the time of publication, bitcoin was down 22.60% over the past 30 days and trading around $69,635.
Institutional flows and ETF demand
Horsley said Bitwise manages more than $15 billion in institutional funds and saw over $100 million of inflows on Monday, when bitcoin was trading near $77,000.
He also pointed to continued activity in U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, including BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, which recorded $231.6 million in inflows on Friday.
Retail interest spikes
Google Trends showed worldwide searches for “Bitcoin” hit a score of 100 for the week starting Feb. 1, the highest level in the past 12 months, as bitcoin briefly fell to $60,000 on Tuesday.
