The CEO of Blockchain recently appeared in an interview to discuss the current state of the cryptocurrency industry, highlighting institutional interest as the primary talking point.
Peter Smith: We Will See Positive Consolidation Over Q3 Of 2018
In a Bloomberg interview conducted on July 20th, Peter Smith, the CEO of the popular crypto infrastructure firm Blockchain, commented on Bitcoin’s most recent run-up. When asked if the move past the $6,800 and $7,000 resistance levels was the “beginning of something longer term,” Smith said:
“I think over the past couple of years we’ve seen a lot of really rapid increases, and really rapid decreases, then a sort of a slow consolidation of the market. I think we are seeing another slow consolidation in the market now and we are likely to see a very sort of moderate or positive price consolidation over the next quarter.”
In other words, the CEO noted that Bitcoin may begin to see a gradual increase over the next few months, possibly indicating that he sees volatility decreasing in this industry.
Speaking more on this prediction, Smith cited reasons of higher levels of regulatory clarity, which was brought about by the countless developments made over the past year as Bitcoin hit the mainstream.
Blockchain’s CEO: Retail Market Is Slowing As Institutional Interest Picks Up
Additionally, the CEO of Blockchain also brought attention to the fact that the institutional “order flow” has begun to increase, while retail investment and interest is starting to die down. He later elaborated on the retail versus institutional comment, stating:
“I think right now you are seeing a pretty slow retail market and historically the market has been led by retail. You are seeing a pretty big uptick in the institutional market and that’s a lot of the reason why Bitcoin is outperforming.”
Smith expects the institutional space to grow further due to new services and platforms aimed at clients from legacy markets. His own firm launched Blockchain Principal Strategies just a few weeks prior to the interview, which aims to be a one-stop shop for institutional clients looking to get their feet metaphorically dipped in the cryptocurrency space.
However, despite holding a positive sentiment regarding institutional involvement overall, Smith expects for institutional impact to arrive over a longer timescale, pointing out the industry won’t see the full effect of these investors until mid-2019.
Bitcoin Market Dominance Rises to 47% As Altcoins Stumble
As Smith stated in the interview, institutions usually make Bitcoin their first cryptocurrency holding, resulting in an imbalance between capital invested in Bitcoin and in an altcoin like Ethereum. He noted:
“Institutions, when they are coming into the crypto market, usually buy Bitcoin first. And so I expect Bitcoin to outperform relative to other major cryptos in the next 6 months.”
As of the time of press, Bitcoin currently sits at the long-awaited $8,000 price level, while its market dominance figure at 46.9%, which is the highest it has been since mid-December of last year.
Brian Kelly, CNBC’s in-house crypto expert, pointed out Bitcoin’s dominance in a “Fast Money” segment on Monday, stating that Bitcoin has begun to bottom and subsequently move upwards due to the widespread speculation regarding the upcoming ETF verdict. Ran Neu Ner, the host of the CNBC Africa’s “Crypto Trader” show also expects for Bitcoin to continue to see a rising dominance figure as the market awaits the ruling, set to arrive sometime in mid-August.
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