In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA), shared his bullish outlook on Bitcoin. He emphasised the rising institutional curiosity and a positive regulatory surroundings that might propel the BTC worth to new highs.
Thiel dismissed the influence of the current Bitcoin halving, stating, “I feel the halving had zero impact.” As a substitute, he attributed the Bitcoin worth surge to the introduction of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) earlier this 12 months. “In January, you had the ETFs that launched that drove abruptly the beginnings of some institutional curiosity,” he famous.
Establishments Simply ‘Ready To Purchase Up’ Bitcoin
Whereas the preliminary investments in these ETFs have been predominantly retail, Thiel noticed a shift as institutional gamers started coming into the market. “Then you definitely began seeing some pension funds beginning to purchase into ETFs and into Bitcoin-related equities like our inventory or MicroStrategy‘s,” he added.
The CEO highlighted the potential influence of political developments on the BTC market. “With the election, , Donald Trump ran on a platform that may be very pro-Bitcoin—Bitcoin strategic reserve, mining within the US, and many others.,” Thiel mentioned. He advised that such a stance may result in a extra supportive regulatory surroundings in america.
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“What that’s ended up driving is a large perception that abruptly the regulatory surroundings for Bitcoin and crypto will get a lot better, that the US will double down and actually put money into Bitcoin probably,” he defined. This anticipated shift may stress different nations to undertake comparable insurance policies, fostering international adoption.
Thiel additionally identified the sturdy market dynamics absorbing promoting stress from long-term holders. “Each single Bitcoin that had been bought was in revenue, and also you began long-term holders who had held Bitcoin for years starting to liquidate a bit of bit to take some earnings,” he mentioned. Regardless of this, he emphasised the market’s resilience: “There may be a lot demand out there that it simply retains soaking it up.”
Addressing considerations about Bitcoin’s infamous volatility, Thiel asserted that vital drawdowns is likely to be a factor of the previous, at the least within the close to time period. “The volatility of previous years, the place you’ll hit a peak after which see a 20% or 30% drawdown, I feel are gone, at the least for the near-term future,” he said. He believes that institutional buyers are poised to enter the market aggressively. “I feel what we’re going to see is basically establishments simply ready to purchase up Bitcoin,” Thiel predicted.
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He cited current actions by main firms to assist his outlook. “You have a look at MicroStrategy—they’re [issuing a] $3 billion bond; they’re on the market shopping for Bitcoin very aggressively,” he mentioned. “We raised a $1 billion bond at 0% coupon the identical week as Michael Saylor did, and we went out and purchased a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of Bitcoin.” Thiel emphasised that this pattern is gaining momentum: “Plenty of individuals are beginning to do that now.”
Concluding his insights, Thiel expressed confidence in Bitcoin’s upward trajectory. “Anyone who’s promoting is promoting right into a market the place there’s ample demand, and I feel that for the foreseeable future we’ll proceed to see Bitcoin worth transfer up—, up and down, up and down—however usually the pattern will likely be upwards,” he mentioned.
Notably, Cantor Fitzgerald lately adjusted its worth goal for MARA from $33 to $42. The revision follows Mara Holdings’ completion of a considerable $1 billion convertible be aware providing final week. From the $980 million raised, Mara used $199 million to purchase again $222 million in principal of its 2026 convertible notes. With $781 million in proceeds remaining, the corporate plans to buy further Bitcoin, leveraging a technique much like MicroStrategy (MSTR).
Nevertheless, in contrast to MicroStrategy, which focuses purely on capital market maneuvers to build up Bitcoin, Mara additionally operates the most important publicly-traded Bitcoin mining operation by hash fee. Analysts at Cantor spotlight this as a key differentiator with bullish potential.
At press time, BTC traded at $92,531.
Featured picture from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
