Institutional Investors Won’t ‘Run’ Bitcoin to $150K: Researcher
According to Luke Gromen, a macro researcher and founder of FFTT, institutional investors are unlikely to push Bitcoin to new highs this year without a market-moving event.
“If you're counting on institutional investors, 90 to, you know, 150, if that's your plan, if that's your plan, it might not be the main movers,” Gromen told Natalie Brunel in an episode of Coin Stories posted on YouTube on Wednesday.
“That's not how institutional investors do it,” he said. “They sit there and they just go, ‘I wait, I wait,'” he said.
According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin (BTC) will rise from its current price of $89,880 to $150,000, a 67% increase, and 18.86% above its all-time high of $126,198.
“At the very least, this suggests that there is a whole lot of wood to cut for Bitcoin,” Gromen said.
Notable market boosters currently under watch are the US CLARITY Act, which is now facing uncertainty over its rollout, and further quantitative easing from the US Federal Reserve.
Institutions still interested in Bitcoin: CryptoQuant CEO
Crypto market participants often see increasing institutional interest as a sign that prices may rise in the near future. “Institutional demand for Bitcoin remains strong,” said CryptoQuant CEO Ki Yang Ju on Wednesday.
Ju pointed to 577,000 bitcoins bought by institutional funds last year, equivalent to around $53 billion. “It's still flowing,” he reiterated.
In December, asset management firm Greyscale pointed to institutional demand and clear US regulations as the main drivers for forecasting bitcoin to hit new all-time highs in the first half of 2026.
Gromen plays with the idea of Bitcoin going down to $60,000
There is a possibility that Bitcoin will “easily” go to $60,000.
An “all-out trade war” could trigger major Bitcoin selloffs and weaken institutional demand, isolating the US from the rest of the world and even leading to economic collapse.
Related: Steak ‘n Shake taps Bitcoin bonus program for hourly workers
“What happens to the cash flow of those businesses, do they have to turn sellers? Are treasury companies forced sellers of this cycle as we saw in the FTX environment in 2022?” he said.
Treasury companies forced to sell flood the market with supply.
Michael Saylor's Strategy is the largest public Bitcoin treasury with 709,715 bitcoins, worth an estimated $63.77 billion, according to SaylorTracker.
Meanwhile, total Bitcoin public treasury companies hold approximately 1.13 million bitcoins, worth approximately $101.56 billion, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET data.
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