Amongst other interesting points, a recent study by Fundstrat, a prominent market research firm, shows that most institutional investors believe that the current dip in cryptocurrency markets have already reached its lowest point.
Fundstrat’s managing partner and head of research, Tom Lee, revealed this in an interview with CNBC on Thursday, October 4. In the interview, he explained that his firm interviewed 25 institutions at a private dinner of which 54 percent said that bitcoin prices have already seen its bottom.
When the survey participants were asked, “when do you think bitcoin will bottom?” Fundstrat’s exec said most of them were bullish about the market generally. Not only did they say the market has bottomed, 57 percent of the institutions said that bitcoin price was headed to the moon—this being anywhere from $15,000 and above.
This bullish attitude underlines the growing interest these accredited investors have for bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets in general, despite the drawn-out downturn. Several investment banks have spoken of a rising demand for crypto-related investment products from their clients.
To fill this need, investment banks, security exchanges, and cryptocurrency exchanges alike are considering and debuting cryptocurrency investment products including bitcoin futures contracts, cryptocurrency-based exchange-traded notes (ETNs) as well as over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks for cryptocurrencies. There is also an increase in cryptocurrency custodial services and risk management services designed to insulate institutional investors from some of the fluctuations and risks associated with Cryptocurrencies.
Crypto Observers Are Not So Optimistic
The second arm of Fundstrat’s survey investigated the sentiments of cryptocurrency observers through a poll on Twitter. Lee posted a number of questions in a cryptocurrency market poll series which turned up a number of interesting results.
When asked “When do you think Bitcoin will bottom?” less than half of the Twitter users said it has already bottomed. This exposes a less-than-optimistic view of the markets at least in the short term. This is understandable given the nature of the downturn that had lasted for 10 months.
However, crypto enthusiasts have not lost their belief entirely. Apart from the 44 percent who said the worst is already over, an additional 24 percent said Bitcoin will bottom in 2018 in anticipation of an uptrend in 2019. A total of 5,679 persons responded to this poll.
Interestingly, the majority of the respondents (40 percent) expects bitcoin to end next year above $15,000. Out of 5,496 respondents to the question “Where is Bitcoin’s price by YE 2019?” a combined 86 percent expect prices above $7,000 and 14 percent say prices will stay.
In other responses, Ripple [XRP] was tipped to be the best performing cryptocurrency in the next year while central banks were said to have the highest impact on crypto prices.
Calling the Bottom of the Crypto Crash
Some crypto analysts claim to have seen the bottom of the cryptocurrency market crash.
As Smartereum reported, popular crypto investor and founder of crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital Capital Management, Mike Novogratz declared mid-September that bitcoin price has bottomed making room for an upsurge. He backed the claim with a snapshot of Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index (BGCI), which tracks the performance of major cryptocurrencies against the USD.
Also, crypto analyst and CNBC TV presenter, Ran Neu-Ner echoed the same message last month explaining that the worst days of the bitcoin crash may be behind and not ahead.
Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.
