Digital Asset Market Update: Ether Reclaims $3,500, Bitcoin Remains Subdued

The digital asset market saw a positive uptick during the European morning, with ether reclaiming $3,500 and climbing over 4% in the last 24 hours. At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $3,540, while the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) added around 1.6%. Dogecoin (DOGE) also saw a nearly 3.5% increase following a slump on Tuesday, and fellow meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB) was up over 3%. However, Bitcoin remained subdued, trading around $65,400 with a modest 0.2% increase from 24 hours ago.

In a surprising turn of events, wallets tracked by CryptoQuant revealed that whales sold over $1.2 billion worth of BTC in the past two weeks. These long-term bitcoin holders are showing little signs of renewed demand, suggesting a lack of upside potential for the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Analysts noted that traders are not increasing their bitcoin holdings, and the growth in demand from large holders is still weak. It is speculated that crypto miners may be shifting their focus to the booming AI sector, leading them to sell their bitcoin rewards instead of holding onto them.

On a more positive note, broker Bernstein believes that Bitcoin and crypto-linked stocks are currently underrated and ripe for institutional adoption. Despite recent disappointments, Bernstein predicts that major wirehouses and large private bank platforms will approve ETFs in the second half of the year. The report also anticipates that Bitcoin ETF inflows will accelerate in the third and fourth quarters, with large advisers approving ETFs and making room for allocations in existing portfolios. Bernstein has given outperform ratings for bitcoin-adjacent publicly traded firms like MicroStrategy, Robinhood, Riot Platforms, and CleanSpark.