Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan told Bloomberg that Bitcoin's (BTC) refusal to react to negative headlines may signal the bear market has run its course. He pointed to a string of setbacks the asset shrugged off in recent months.
Hougan said wealth management platforms, not short-term hype, will be the next driver pulling fresh capital into Bitcoin. He also weighed in on how much of an investor's holdings belong in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) versus cold storage.
Bad News Stops Moving the Market
Hougan listed several setbacks Bitcoin absorbed without much price damage.
Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor has started selling his Bitcoin reserves through the company, and the firm's STRC preferred stock slid toward $75. STRC, nicknamed "Stretch," is Strategy's preferred share designed to trade near $100 par. One of Bitcoin's biggest backers flinched, and the price hardly moved.
Meanwhile, odds of the Clarity Act passing, a bill setting federal rules for digital asset markets, fell from the mid-40s into the teens, Hougan also pointed out. Hougan also referenced the $116 million Coldcard hardware wallet exploit, which again barely moved Bitcoin's price, unlike past cycles, when bear markets tend to overreact to bad news and ignore good news.
"We're maybe overindexing to good news. I think it's a sign that we may be at the bottom of this crypto winter and that we may have a strong end of the year." Hougan said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuuY7t_ZCIk
Hougan stopped short of calling a firm bottom, framing it instead as a signal worth watching rather than a certainty.
