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 atmosphere that would propel the BTC worth to new highs.
Thiel dismissed the impression of the current Bitcoin halving, stating, “I think the halving had zero effect.” Instead, 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 all of a sudden the beginnings of some institutional interest,” he famous.
Institutions Just ‘Waiting To Buy Up’ Bitcoin
While the preliminary investments in these ETFs had been predominantly retail, Thiel noticed a shift as institutional gamers started getting into the market. “Then you started seeing some pension funds starting to buy into ETFs and into Bitcoin-related equities like our stock or MicroStrategy‘s,” he added.
The CEO highlighted the potential impression of political developments on the BTC market. “With the election, you know, Donald Trump ran on a platform that is very pro-Bitcoin—Bitcoin strategic reserve, mining in the US, etc.,” Thiel stated. He advised that such a stance may result in a extra supportive regulatory atmosphere within the United States.
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“What that’s ended up driving is a huge belief that all of a sudden the regulatory environment for Bitcoin and crypto will get much better, that the US will double down and really invest in Bitcoin potentially,” he defined. This anticipated shift may strain different nations to undertake comparable insurance policies, fostering international adoption.
Thiel additionally identified the strong market dynamics absorbing promoting strain from long-term holders. “Every single Bitcoin that had been purchased was in profit, and you started long-term holders who had held Bitcoin for years beginning to liquidate a little bit to take some profits,” he stated. Despite this, he emphasised the market’s resilience: “There is so much demand in the market that it just keeps soaking it up.”
Addressing issues about Bitcoin’s infamous volatility, Thiel asserted that vital drawdowns may be a factor of the previous, not less than within the close to time period. “The volatility of past years, where you would hit a peak and then see a 20% or 30% drawdown, I think are gone, at least for the near-term future,” he acknowledged. He believes that institutional buyers are poised to enter the market aggressively. “I think what we’re going to see is essentially institutions just waiting to buy up Bitcoin,” Thiel predicted.
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He cited current actions by main firms to assist his outlook. “You look at MicroStrategy—they’re [issuing a] $3 billion bond; they’re out there buying Bitcoin very aggressively,” he stated. “We raised a $1 billion bond at 0% coupon the same week as Michael Saylor did, and we went out and acquired hundreds of millions of dollars of Bitcoin.” Thiel emphasised that this pattern is gaining momentum: “Lots of people are starting to do this now.”
Concluding his insights, Thiel expressed confidence in Bitcoin’s upward trajectory. “Anybody who’s selling is selling into a market where there’s ample demand, and I think that for the foreseeable future we’ll continue to see Bitcoin price move up—you know, up and down, up and down—but generally the trend will 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 observe 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 just like MicroStrategy (MSTR).
However, not like 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 charge. 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
