Bitcoin’s institutional demand sky explodes in 2024

According to CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, Bitcoin has seen increased institutional demand since the beginning of the year.

According to Young Ju’s X post, US-based spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds have recorded net inflows of approximately 278,000 BTC since their launch in January; 80% of inflows are from retail investors.

#Bitcoin Institutional demand for custodial wallets is increasing.

Last year 278k BTC flowed into US spot ETFs (80% retail) and 670k BTC into whale wallets (1k+ BTC, excluding exchanges/mining pools).

Institutional demand for custodial wallets is twice that of retail. pic.twitter.com/OsxS7x3kEL

— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) 29 October 2024

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

The CEO of CryptoQuant, a leading market analysis platform, said that “institutional demand is twice as much as retail demand” for personal storage wallets.

Whales control the majority

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

The last company to join the list was the Japanese investment company Metaplanet. According to Crypto.news report, Metaplanet increased its Bitcoin holdings by 156.7 BTC on October 28; the total amount reached 1,018 BTC, worth over $70 million at the time of reporting.

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

BTC price | Source: crypto.news

Daily trading volume of the flagship cryptocurrency increased by 123% to $47 billion. Bitcoin’s market cap has surpassed $1.4 trillion following its recent price surge.

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