Experts say institutions drove Bitcoin’s rise to $19K and that alt-season is coming

Market analysts are attributing Bitcoin’s sudden surge above $19,000 to aggressive demand from financial institutions and leading companies in the United States.

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Experts say institutions drove Bitcoin's rise to $19K and that alt-season is coming

Analysts are pointing to demand from financial institutions and publicly listed companies as the primary forces behind BTC’s sudden re-test of its all-time highs.

“The primary reason for the steady grind up in Bitcon has been the increased interest and aggressive buying activity from institutions,” said Nick Cote of gamified trading platform Hxro Labs. “A lot of investors are going through Grayscale.”

Rising institutional demand can be seen in heavy accumulation by Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust, with the fund’s BTC holdings exceeding 500,000 earlier this month.

Cote also said that top American companies like Square and Microstrategy are “putting BTC on their books as a hedge against inflation and poor monetary policy management from the central banks.” He described this behavior as driving a “positive feedback loop” in the markets:

“There will be pullbacks of course, but as long as institutions believe in the narrative of Bitcoin being used as a store of value or hedge against inflation, it becomes a positive feedback loop.”

NEM head of trading Nicholas Pelecanos agreed, stating that Bitcoin’s fundamentals are now stronger than ever before, pointing to post-halving supply dynamics, a rise in institutional adoption along with a number of “publicly listed U.S. companies moving 10% of their balance sheet into the asset.”

Pelecanos is now looking to a rise in the altcoin markets, stating, “BTC is back at its all-time high levels, but what is worth noting is the valuation of the altcoins which are on average still 50% below their all-time highs.”

Despite his bullish outlook for alts, Pelecanos warned that many alternative cryptocurrencies have failed to attract meaningful adoption, stating:

“Some altcoins represent projects that are no longer functioning, yet other projects have seen tremendous development on both adoption and tech.”

Analysts have also pointed to bullish signals coming from the mining markets, with Glassnode CTO Rafael Schultze-Kraft noting that miners have hoarded an additional 10,000 BTC since March.