Bitwise CIO: Bitcoin to End Year 'Significantly Higher'

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan expects Bitcoin to finish the year significantly higher.

“Bad news has stopped moving the market,” Hougan said. “The sellers are gone. When bad news stops moving the market, that marks the bottom,” he added.

Hougan also argued that institutional exposure to Bitcoin has continued to grow.

According to the Bitwise executive, the amount of Bitcoin allocated by institutions under a conventional 1% portfolio-allocation framework has effectively risen to between 4% and 5%.

Bitcoin’s largest holders are accumulating again

In the meantime, data from blockchain analytics platform Santiment shows that the number of wallets holding at least 10,000 $BTC is rebounding to a six-month high.

According to Santiment, 90 wallets now hold at least 10,000 $BTC, representing a net increase of six such wallets over the past eight weeks, or a 7.1% rise.

At the same time, smaller wallets have been losing their share of Bitcoin’s supply during August. Santiment attributed some of the resulting retail pessimism to concerns surrounding the recent Coldcard hacks and delays surrounding the Clarity Act.

Bitcoin supply is increasingly moving toward its largest holders, as the data shows.

Diverging takes among trading gurus

Crypto trader DonAlt is also seeing signs that Bitcoin could be approaching a major move higher.

“This looks like it wants to explode,” DonAlt wrote on X, arguing that only a small push may be needed for Bitcoin to break through its current resistance and move toward the next major price level.

Not everyone expects Bitcoin to break higher. As reported by U.Today, veteran trader Peter Brandt has taken a more cautious view, saying that if he were forced to bet on Bitcoin’s next move, he would favor a decline.

“I am not in the bet yet, but if I were to bet it would be for a decline,” Brandt said on X.

Brandt has pointed to a potential head-and-shoulders formation that developed between April and June.