Although the price of Bitcoin is below 40K, institutional activity has been steadily increasing since the beginning of 2020, according to data from Into the Block.
Platform data Into the Block show that currently, nearly 99% of all trading volume generated in the blockchain of Bitcoin comes from transactions worth over $100.000, indicating that institutional activity dominates on the blockchain.
The platform's head of research, Lucas Outumuro, mentioned in his latest report weekly that financial and technological institutions continue to enter the crypto market, increasing the demand for bitcoins and of others cryptocurrencies, , despite the drop in value on the market since the end of 2021. In fact, the institutional appeal of cryptocurrencies has continued to grow steadily over the past two years.
Outumuro noted that institutional investors have not been deterred from investing in crypto assets like Bitcoin, even though the belief that cryptocurrencies are an uncorrelated asset class may be fading.
According to the platform's data, since the third quarter of 2020, institutional dominance on the Bitcoin network and structural changes have accelerated. The proportion of high-value transactions has remained above 90% since then, the analyst said.
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High institutional demand for Bitcoin
“Broad interest from multi-billion dollar institutions began in 2020 and shows no signs of slowing down”, said Into the Block's head of research.
In recent weeks, major financial institutions have revealed their interest in the world of cryptocurrencies. To name a few entities, the Canadian subsidiary of the consulting firm KPMG added bitcoins and ethers to its corporate balance sheet in mid-February. The investment bank Goldman Sachs wants to offer Ethereum as an investment alternative to its clients through the Grayscale Investments fund. Even the State Street, one of the world’s largest and oldest banks, is set to launch an institutional-grade cryptocurrency custody service to provide access to crypto assets for its increasingly digitally interested investors.
The global market maker Citadel Securities also plans to enter the crypto world. The asset manager Golden Tree is hiring a head of digital assets, while companies Sequoia, Pantera Capital y Bain Capital are creating their own cryptocurrency funds, the report says. The Wall Street Journal reported Earlier this month, major Wall Street hedge funds are also expanding their involvement in the crypto world, investing billions of dollars in various crypto assets.
On the other hand, the business intelligence company microstrategy has increased its Bitcoin holdings by 580% since invested in this cryptocurrency for the first time in August 2020. Currently, MicroStrategy is the largest institutional investor in Bitcoin, with a total of 125.051 BTC in their balance sheets.
New ATH for Terra (LUNA)
In his weekly report, Outumuro also talked about the new all-time high (ATH) reached by Terra (LUNA), which has been defying the current bear market.
Last week, the native cryptocurrency of the scalability blockchain marked a new ATH of $103,8 per unit. With a current market cap of $33.820 billion, LUNA is the seventh most valuable crypto on the market.
Privacy-focused cryptocurrencies have also seen significant growth in recent weeks, as governments have tightened sanctions against Russia.
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