On the same day that famous Wall Street bank, Goldman Sachs told its clients that cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), is not an asset, new data suggests that there is growing institutional demand for Bitcoin, especially after the historic third halving earlier this month.
While approximately 12,337 BTC has been mined since the halving, digital asset manager, Grayscale has been on a buying spree, purchasing 18,910 BTC over the said period.
Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust bought 18,910 Bitcoins since the halving.
Only 12,337 Bitcoins have been mined since the halving.
Wall Street wants Bitcoin, and they don’t care what Goldman Sachs has to say. pic.twitter.com/Br6a4ijuze
— Kevin Rooke (@kerooke) May 27, 2020
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), a closed-end investment fund that focuses exclusively on Bitcoin at the time of writing boasts $3.2 billion in assets under management or an equivalent of 352,733 BTC. That amount represents 1.89% of Bitcoin’s current circulating supply.
Bitcoin’s scarcity kicking in
Evidently, the effect of Bitcoin’s recent supply is yet to have a significant impact on price movement, with the cryptocurrency failing the reclaim the psychological $10,000 mark that it shortly breached in the days leading up to halving.
However, continued demand for the digital asset has left investors optimistic that it would only be a while until demand catches up with the reduced supply.
Interestingly, Coinfomania had reported earlier that Square’s Cash App and Grayscale purchased over 52% of Bitcoin mined in Q1 2020, with the latter reporting a $503.7 million inflow over that period from mostly institutional investors.
More recently on the institutional front, Wall Street bank, JP Morgan took a stance different from Goldman Sachs, opening its doors to cryptocurrency exchanges, and admitting that cryptocurrencies could have a place in an investor’s portfolio as a hedge against a loss of confidence in both the domestic currency and the payments system.
