Market News

by Kevin Helms

Goldman Sachs’ global head of commodities research sees the bitcoin market becoming more mature. “The key to creating some type of stability in the market is to see an increase in the participation of institutional investors,” he detailed. Meanwhile, the price of the cryptocurrency soared on Thursday, regaining much of the losses from the beginning of the week.

Goldman Sachs Sees Maturing Bitcoin Market

Jeff Currie, global head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs, told CNBC this week that the bitcoin market is becoming more mature. Noting that it is “very difficult to forecast” bitcoin’s price due to the level of volatility and uncertainty in the market, the Goldman Sachs head of commodities research remarked:

I think the market is beginning to become more mature. I think in any nascent market you get that volatility and those risks that are associated with it.

The price of the bitcoin has just returned to the $40K level after taking a nosedive Sunday night, shedding billions off its market cap. It climbed from a low of $36,811 to a high of $40,015 on Thursday, gaining about 8.7%. At the time of writing, BTC is trading $39,583 and its market cap has surpassed $736 billion.

Currie further opined:

The key to creating some type of stability in the market is to see an increase in the participation of institutional investors and right now they’re small.

Currie added that “institutional money” only accounts for “roughly 1%” of bitcoin’s market cap. Meanwhile, Bitcointreasuries.org, the site which lists known companies holding bitcoin, shows that a total of 1,171,889 BTC are held by public companies and investment funds. This amounts to more than $46 billion or approximately 6% of bitcoin’s total market cap.

Nonetheless, the number of institutional investors with bitcoin in their portfolios has been increasing. Several reports suggest growing institutional demand for BTC, such as a survey by Fidelity, which found that almost 80% of 800 institutional investors surveyed find crypto assets appealing. Among recent institutional buyers of bitcoins are Microstrategy, Ruffer, Skybridge, and Massmutual.