Bitcoin’s bullish thesis for trading above $100,000 has only solidified in recent weeks, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan asserted in a new X post.
Bitcoin (BTC), crypto’s sole trillion-dollar asset, will inevitably cross six figures per coin due to a combination of institutional, macroeconomic, and on-chain factors, Hougan explained.
Exchange-traded fund expert Eric Balchunas stated that U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds surpassed $20 billion in total net flows. The American Bitcoin ETF complex has garnered over $65 billion in assets under management following $1.5 billion in inflows this week.
ETFs tracking legacy assets like gold took years to achieve these numbers, according to Balchunas. Bitcoin products reached this milestone within a year, signaling strong demand from retail and institutional investors.
Bitcoin ETFs have crossed $20b in total net flows (the most imp number, most difficult metric to grow in ETF world) for first time after huge week of $1.5b. For context, it took gold ETFs about 5yrs to reach same number. Total assets now $65b, also a high water mark. pic.twitter.com/edldEimfqd
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 17, 2024
Hougan, along with QCP Capital and other experts, pointed to the upcoming U.S. presidential elections as another catalyst for Bitcoin’s price acceleration. Pro-Bitcoin candidate Donald Trump has led several on-chain betting polls on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.
There’s also a growing outlook supporting a strong Bitcoin price performance regardless of which party controls the White House.
Hougan mentioned Bitcoin whale accumulation as another bullish indicator. Data from CryptoQuant confirmed that large Bitcoin holders have been buying the asset at unprecedented rates. CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju said that Bitcoin’s open interest hit an all-time high of $20 billion, with new whale wallets now controlling 9.3% of the total supply.
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) October 16, 2024New whale wallets now hold 1.97M #Bitcoin.
Each has over 1K BTC, average coin age under 155 days, excluding exchange and miner wallets, likely custodial.
Their BTC balance surged 813% YTD, taking up 9.3% of the total supply, valued at $132B today. pic.twitter.com/pxq0tcqMuW
The consensus among crypto proponents expects liquidity to flow into risk assets soon, citing seasonal data, new stock price highs, and global rate cuts by central banks like the Federal Reserve. Historically, Bitcoin has gained in the fourth quarter more often than not, and experts suggest a low-funding rate environment could further support this trend.