Institutional investors have steadily increased their accumulation of bitcoin since BlackRock placed an order for a BTC ETF. This coincided with bitcoin balances across exchanges dropping to new lows.
Data from ByteTree showed that the amount of Bitcoin held by funds quickly grew to nearly 850,000 BTC in June. Cryptocurrency analyst Miles Deutscher suggested that the growth signals “the beginning of a large-scale institutional accumulation of Bitcoin.”
BTC accumulation by institutional investors
Over the past month, institutional interest in bitcoin has skyrocketed as several traditional financial institutions such as BlackRock, Fidelity, and others have applied for exchange-traded funds (ETFs). While the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has yet to approve a spot BTC product, crypto industry experts quickly embraced the positive market sentiment sparked by ETF applications.
For context, MicroStrategy purchased an additional 12,333 BTC for $347 million on June 28, bringing the company’s total BTC holdings to 152,333 BTC. This purchase continued company president Michael Saylor’s firm belief in the leading digital asset.
The Glasnode data further confirms the growing institutional interest in the BTC market. According to the data provider, the number of BTC whales reached a one-month high of 1,685 on July 7.
Besides, the perception of former institutional skeptics about Bitcoin is becoming increasingly positive. Recent statements by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink better reflect this changing situation.
Fink, a longtime critic of BTC, recently spoke out in support of the major asset. BlackRock’s CEO described it as an alternative investment to hedge against currency depreciation.
He said:
“Bitcoin is not dependent on any single currency, and therefore it can represent an asset that people can play with as an alternative. It is the digitization of gold in many ways.”
BTC exchange balance fell to the lowest level in 5 years
Meanwhile, the increasing accumulation of institutional investors coincided with a decrease in the stock of bitcoin on exchanges, indicating that investors are increasingly favoring self-holding.
Glassnode data shows that the BTC balance across all exchanges is currently at 2.26 million, the lowest since March 2018.
Meanwhile, BTC continues to trade above $30,000, reaching a yearly high of $31,500 recently. It is trading for $30,273 at the time of writing, according to data for BeInCrypto.
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