Bitcoin continued falling on March 17 as promises of a watershed moment for adoption failed to lift short-term price action.
In a sign that its comedown from all-time highs of $61,700 was not yet over, BTC/USD put in a local low of $54,120 during Wednesday trading.
PlanB: $100,000 won’t be this cycle’s top
At press time, $55,000 was a focus for support, something that commentators suggested would be crucial to avoid further losses on lower timeframes.
“BTC still putting in an uptrend on the daily chart,” popular trader Josh Rager summarized, adding a hopeful perspective.
“Trendlines are meant to be broken but as long as price is above $50k (above the previous range) I think this continues to push back up to new highs. People will be calling ‘the top’ at every pullback so get used to it.”
Even at below $55,000, the extent of the pullback from record highs totalled less than that which occurred after the previous top of $58,300, topping out at a maximum of 14%.
The longer the perspective, the more bullish the mood remained on the day, with quant analyst PlanB noting that his stock-to-flow Bitcoin price models still allowed for plenty of upside.
“We are only 3.5 months into the #bitcoin bull market,” he tweeted, referencing both the average price targets for his stock-to-flow and stock-to-flow (S2F) cross-asset (S2FX) models.
“(In my opinion) BTC will not stop at $100K and will continue to S2FX $288K average price level (ATH will be higher).”
NYDIG CEO: Get ready for “game-changing” adoption landmarks
The mood was further improved by institutional sources. The CEO of newly-christened Bitcoin investment company NYDIG, Robby Gutmann, on Monday revealed that from this week onwards, “game-changing” announcements regarding institutional Bitcoin adoption would begin to go public.
“…I don’t think, I know, starting more or less next week, you’re going to see an absolute drumbeat of pretty game-changing milestones from some of these firms,” he told On The Brink in an edition originally recorded last week and released on Monday.
These, Gutmann continued, would “mark each progressively new point in Bitcoin adoption, Bitcoin availability, Bitcoin products and services within the existing traditional financial landscapes.”
The comments come roughly six weeks after MicroStrategy, one of the largest BTC holders among institutions, held an event dedicated to onboarding more firms. The impact of the heavily-oversubscribed “Bitcoin for Institutions” may be about to become tangible, reponses argued.
“We are seeing investment professionals, institutional investors, billionaires, corporations, govs & financial institutions all reversing their negative views on bitcoin,” Eric Weiss, CEO Bitcoin Investment Group, told Twitter followers on Tuesday.
“This trend will continue. We have passed the event horizon. The best store of value in the world is Bitcoin.”
Meanwhile, data showed that despite the narrative, retail investors were in fact buying even more Bitcoin than their professional counterparts.
Q4 2020 was particularly active for retail newcomers PayPal and Square, with volumes for Q1 2021 almost matching them with two weeks left to run, figures from JPMorgan revealed.
