More Institutions Are Buying Bitcoin, Say JPMorgan Analysts

In their “Flows & Liquidity” report, JPMorgan analysts say institutions are piling into bitcoin at a stronger pace this quarter than they were in Q3, and may have a bigger role in price movement than commodity trading advisors, or CTA.

• The Friday report was written by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, Mika Inkenen and Ekansh Agarwal.
• They said institutional investors are looking at bitcoin as a long-term investment. As proof, they cited the growing size in Q4 of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, whose customers are mostly institutional.
• In Q3, retail customers bought $1.6 billion worth of bitcoin using Square’s Cash App, some three times more than what was invested in Grayscale’s bitcoin product.
• This quarter, however, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is at three times its Q3 numbers. There is no data at present for Square customers’ bitcoin buys.
• Grayscale Investments is a digital asset management firm owned by venture capital firm Digital Currency Group (DCG), which also owns CoinDesk.
• JP Morgan also speculates bitcoin’s failure to revert to its mean price in recent weeks is a sign that momentum traders such as CTAs have had a shrinking role in the market relative to institutions.