Bitcoin’s Strategic Plunge: Institutions Seize a ‘New Crack at the Apple’ Below $70K, Says Bitwise CEO

In a dramatic shift from recent all-time highs, Bitcoin’s price retreat below the $70,000 threshold is creating a pivotal moment in digital asset markets, according to Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley. Speaking from New York on Friday, March 7, 2025, Horsley revealed that while long-term holders face uncertainty, sophisticated institutional investors are viewing the correction as a rare second chance at entry points they believed had vanished permanently.

Bitcoin Price Correction Creates Institutional Buying Window

Market data confirms Bitcoin has entered a significant correction phase, declining approximately 22.60% over the past thirty days. Consequently, the world’s leading cryptocurrency traded at $69,635 at publication time, according to CoinMarketCap. This downward movement represents a substantial departure from analyst predictions just months earlier. Notably, Standard Chartered’s head of digital asset research, Geoff Kendrick, stated in October 2024 that he didn’t anticipate Bitcoin falling below $100,000 again. Therefore, the current price action has fundamentally reset market expectations and opportunity structures.

Hunter Horsley explained this phenomenon during his CNBC interview, stating institutional buyers are “seeing prices they thought that they’d forever missed.” This perspective highlights a crucial divergence in market participant psychology. Meanwhile, retail investors often react emotionally to price drops, but institutions typically deploy capital based on strategic valuation models. The Bitwise CEO manages over $15 billion in institutional funds, providing him with direct insight into large-scale capital movements. His firm witnessed more than $100 million in inflows on a single Monday when Bitcoin traded around $77,000, demonstrating sustained institutional interest despite volatility.

The Macroeconomic Context Driving Market Movements

Horsley positioned Bitcoin’s performance within broader financial market trends, noting the asset is “getting swept up” with other liquid macro assets. This correlation occurs as investors engage in widespread selling of liquid holdings during periods of macroeconomic uncertainty. For comparison, gold has fallen 11.43% from its January 28 all-time high of $5,609, while silver experienced a more severe 35.95% decline from its peak. These parallel movements suggest Bitcoin is increasingly trading in sync with traditional risk-off sentiment, a maturation in its market behavior that institutions monitor closely.

Institutional Demand Metrics Defy Bear Market Sentiment

Despite the prevailing bear market classification, concrete data reveals robust institutional engagement. BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), for instance, recorded substantial $231.6 million in inflows last Friday. This followed two days of heavy outflows during the week’s most turbulent trading sessions. The resilience of ETF flows indicates that many institutions are using these regulated products to establish or increase Bitcoin exposure during dips, implementing dollar-cost averaging strategies rather than timing absolute market bottoms.

The following table illustrates key institutional flow data during the recent correction period:

Concurrently, retail curiosity has surged alongside the price decline. Google Trends data shows worldwide searches for “Bitcoin” reached a maximum score of 100 for the week beginning February 1, 2025. This represents the highest search interest level in the past twelve months. Search volume peaked as Bitcoin’s price touched $60,000 on Tuesday, a level not observed since October 2024. This data suggests retail investors are monitoring the dip for potential entry points, though often with different time horizons and risk tolerances than institutional counterparts.

Regulatory Clarity Contrasts With Short-Term Price Action

Hunter Horsley acknowledged an apparent contradiction in current market dynamics. Specifically, Bitcoin’s price decline coincides with accelerating regulatory clarity and growing institutional adoption pathways. This divergence between positive fundamental developments and negative price momentum creates what analysts term a “value disconnect.” For institutional investors with multi-year horizons, such disconnects represent calculated opportunities rather than reasons for alarm. They assess the probability of long-term adoption against temporary market sentiment.

The current environment features several positive structural developments:

• Enhanced Regulatory Frameworks: Multiple jurisdictions have progressed toward comprehensive digital asset regulations.
• Infrastructure Maturation: Custody, trading, and settlement systems have achieved institutional-grade reliability.
• Product Diversification: ETFs, futures, and structured products provide varied exposure methods.
• Corporate Treasury Adoption: Public companies continue adding Bitcoin to balance sheets as a treasury reserve asset.

These developments collectively strengthen Bitcoin’s investment thesis despite short-term price volatility. Institutions consequently evaluate current prices through this dual lens of temporary sentiment versus enduring fundamentals.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Adjustment Reflects Network Health

Further demonstrating Bitcoin’s resilient underlying economics, the network recently experienced its most significant mining difficulty drop since 2021. The difficulty adjustment mechanism automatically reduced requirements by over 11%, allowing miners to remain profitable despite lower Bitcoin prices. This built-in adaptability represents a core innovation of Bitcoin’s protocol, ensuring network security persists across market cycles. Institutional analysts monitor such metrics to assess network health independently of price fluctuations.

Historical Context for Current Market Phase

Bitcoin has experienced numerous corrections exceeding 20% throughout its history, often during broader bull markets. Each previous instance eventually gave way to renewed upward momentum as new investor cohorts entered at perceived discounts. The current institutional “crack at the apple” resembles patterns observed during 2020’s March crash and 2021’s summer consolidation. During those periods, institutional accumulation preceded substantial price appreciation, as documented by on-chain data and exchange flow analytics.

Several factors distinguish the 2025 correction from earlier cycles:

• Institutional Presence: Previously absent large-scale investors now dominate volume.
• Regulated Products: ETFs provide compliant exposure channels unavailable in past cycles.
• Macro Integration: Bitcoin now correlates more closely with traditional risk assets.
• Market Maturity: Derivatives markets and liquidity pools have expanded significantly.

These evolutionary changes mean price recovery mechanisms may differ from historical patterns, potentially featuring more gradual institutional accumulation rather than retail-fueled vertical rallies.

Conclusion

Bitcoin’s decline below $70,000 represents a complex market moment with divergent implications for different investor classes. While generating uncertainty among some holders, the correction provides institutions with strategic entry opportunities at levels many considered permanently inaccessible. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley’s insights reveal how sophisticated investors interpret volatility through long-term fundamental frameworks rather than short-term sentiment. Consequently, strong institutional inflows during the dip suggest confidence in Bitcoin’s enduring value proposition despite current bear market classification. As regulatory clarity improves and adoption infrastructure matures, today’s price action may ultimately represent another accumulation chapter in Bitcoin’s ongoing institutionalization narrative.

FAQs

Q1: Why do institutions see Bitcoin below $70,000 as an opportunity?
Institutions typically employ valuation models that identify strategic entry points during market corrections. Many missed earlier accumulation phases and view current prices as discounted relative to long-term adoption forecasts.

Q2: How significant is the current Bitcoin price correction?
Bitcoin has declined approximately 22.60% over thirty days, trading around $69,635. This represents a meaningful correction but remains within historical volatility ranges for the asset, especially during bull market consolidations.

Q3: What evidence supports continued institutional demand?
Data shows Bitwise received over $100 million in institutional inflows in one day, while BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF saw $231.6 million inflows last Friday. These metrics indicate sustained institutional engagement despite price volatility.

Q4: How does Bitcoin’s current performance compare to other assets?
Bitcoin is correlating with broader market trends, declining alongside gold (-11.43% from highs) and silver (-35.95% from highs). This suggests it’s trading as a liquid macro asset during current risk-off sentiment.

Q5: What role do Bitcoin ETFs play in institutional adoption?
Spot Bitcoin ETFs provide regulated, familiar investment vehicles for institutions. Their consistent inflows during volatility demonstrate they’re becoming preferred exposure tools, facilitating easier capital deployment during market dips.