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 would propel the BTC worth to new highs.
Thiel dismissed the impression of the latest Bitcoin halving, stating, “I believe the halving had zero impact.” As an alternative, he attributed the Bitcoin worth surge to the introduction of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) earlier this yr. “In January, you had the ETFs that launched that drove rapidly 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 getting 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 impression of political developments on the BTC market. “With the election, you recognize, Donald Trump ran on a platform that may be very pro-Bitcoin—Bitcoin strategic reserve, mining within the US, and many others.,” Thiel stated. He urged 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 big perception that rapidly the regulatory surroundings for Bitcoin and crypto will get significantly 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 world 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 income,” he stated. Regardless of this, he emphasised the market’s resilience: “There may be a lot demand available in the market that it simply retains soaking it up.”
Addressing issues about Bitcoin’s infamous volatility, Thiel asserted that important drawdowns is likely to be a factor of the previous, not less than 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 believe are gone, not less than for the near-term future,” he said. He believes that institutional traders are poised to enter the market aggressively. “I believe what we’re going to see is actually establishments simply ready to purchase up Bitcoin,” Thiel predicted.
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He cited latest actions by main firms to help 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 stated. “We raised a $1 billion bond at 0% coupon the identical week as Michael Saylor did, and we went out and purchased lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} of Bitcoin.” Thiel emphasised that this pattern is gaining momentum: “Numerous 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 believe that for the foreseeable future we’ll proceed to see Bitcoin worth transfer up—you recognize, up and down, up and down—however typically the pattern will probably be upwards,” he stated.
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 extra 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 price. 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