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Bitcoin Struggles Amidst Institutional Investment Slowdown

Bitcoin witnessed continued weakness on as consolidation coincided with a brief slowdown in institutional investment.

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, BTC struggled to maintain its price around $51,000.

Bulls found themselves confined within a narrow trading range for over a week, with concerns arising over the inflows to spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Recent days saw a significant deceleration in these inflows, with February 21st even experiencing a net outflow of approximately $36 million, as per data shared on X (formerly Twitter) by sources including BitMEX Research.

February 22nd showed heightened activity, with net inflows surpassing a quarter of a million dollars, even after factoring in outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

“Normality resumed with a $251M inflow into the Bitcoin ETFs,” responded James Van Straten, research and data analyst at crypto insights firm CryptoSlate.

Addressing the pace of buying from ETF operators, Thomas Fahrer, CEO of crypto-focused reviews portal Apollo, predicted that BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), the largest among them, would alter BTC supply dynamics in the future.

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“98% of all the #Bitcoin in existence already costs >100K if you tried to buy it,” he argued alongside a chart of IBIT holdings.

“Remember that the current price is just the marginal trade. Blackrock is going to test this theory, so we’ll find out soon enough.”

As of February 23rd, IBIT held 124,535 BTC ($6.35 billion), according to data from Apollo’s own ETF tracker.

Turning to low-timeframe BTC price analysis, popular trader Skew encapsulated the sentiment among seasoned market observers.

He concluded that the uptrend remained intact, but significant support levels were now back in focus.

These included the 88-period and 100-period exponential moving averages (EMAs) on the four-hour chart at $50,017 and $49,654 respectively, along with the 18-period EMA on the daily chart at $49,645.

“Currently, price trades around range low & 4H 55EMA which typically is a near term trend inflection point, meaning momentum picks up soon,” part of his latest X analysis read.

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Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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