Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) may be moving beyond its reliance on Michael Saylor’s Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), with institutional investors emerging as the next major source of demand.

BTC “Shrugged Off” Strategy’s Recent Sale

In an interview with Milk Road on July 8, Bitwise’s Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said Strategy was the dominant Bitcoin buyer over the past several years, but that role is fading.

"It will still be important, but it’s no longer the primary source of marginal capital," added Hougan pointing to BTC’s muted reaction after Strategy sold a little over $200 million worth of BTC to fund preferred dividends.

Bitcoin "shrugged it off," he said, arguing that the market viewed the sale as evidence that Strategy is acting rationally rather than moving toward a forced liquidation scenario.

Following the offloading, Bitcoin climbed back to the $64,000 mark, reclaiming the level for the first time in nearly two weeks.

Bitwise Head of Research Ryan Rasmussen said clients continue to ask whether Strategy represents a concentration risk, but most agree it is no longer a major long-term concern for Bitcoin.

Next Buyer Is “End Boss Of Investing“

Hougan said Bitcoin’s history has been defined by one major buyer handing the baton to the next, from cypherpunks to Asian retail investors, U.S. retail investors, GBTC, Strategy and now institutional capital.

"The next marginal buyer is the end boss of investing," Hougan said. "It’s institutional capital."

Rasmussen said Vanguard’s search for a head of digital assets is another sign that traditional finance is moving deeper into crypto.

He said institutional adoption is becoming a "tidal wave," with asset managers, advisers, pensions and endowments increasingly forced to consider crypto exposure as clients and peers move into the asset class.

Hougan added that career risk on Wall Street has flipped.

Earlier, professionals risked reputational damage by supporting crypto. Now, he said, ignoring digital assets may be the larger risk.

Bitwise also highlighted the recent strength in decentralized finance assets as the firm’s DeFi index is up 51% over the past three months despite broader crypto market weakness.

Rasmussen said stablecoin growth could benefit layer-1 blockchains such as Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) and Hyperliquid, along with infrastructure providers such as Chainlink and issuers such as Circle (NYSE:CRCL) and Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN)

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