Bitcoin’s institutional demand sky explodes in 2024

Bitcoin has been seeing increased institutional demand since the start of the year, according to CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju.

According to Young Ju’s X post, the U.S.-based spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds recorded a net inflow of around 278,000 BTC since their launch in January—80% of the inflows belong to retail investors.

However, whale addresses holding at least 1,000 BTC—excluding crypto exchanges and mining pools—saw an inflow of 670,000 BTC over the past year. 

The CEO of CryptoQuant, one of the leading market analysis platforms, said that the “institutional demand is twice that of retail” in self-custodial wallets.

Whales control the majority

According to data provided by IntoTheBlock, nearly 40% of the Bitcoin supply is sitting in whale addresses holding at least 1,000 BTC. 

The latest company to join the list is the Japanese investment firm Metaplanet. Per a crypto.news report, Metaplanet increased its Bitcoin holdings by 156.7 BTC on Oct. 28—the total amount reached 1,018 BTC, worth over $70 million at the reporting time.

Bitcoin gained 4% in the past 24 hours and is trading at $70,950 at the time of writing. The asset briefly touched a five-month high of $71,475 earlier today. At this point, BTC is only 3.5% away from its all-time high of $73,750.

The flagship cryptocurrency saw its daily trading volume surge by 123%, reaching $47 billion. Bitcoin’s market cap surpassed the $1.4 trillion mark following the recent price hike.

According to ITB, over 99% of Bitcoin holders are currently profitable. This could hint at short-term profit-taking which could indicate a potential price correction.