@figmentofmyass. However, look at the chart. This appears to be very similar to a bubble ready to burst. Similar to the 2 bubbles bitcoin has witnessed in the past. You reckon institutions would take that risk by buying today? Also, if the market is really manipulated by them, would it not he better to buy the bottom and manipulate it to sell during the height of the pump?
Like figmentofmyass already explained, I think they can sustain whatever price levels they want. Before the covid19 crash that happened in March, wall street was in a bubble too and it popped. Nonetheless, here it is at those prices again without any actual link to what's happening in the economy.
Maybe bitcoin price is going up to a certain point and then it will magically pop because of some unforeseen (or carefully planned) black swan.
I have 100% confidence in bitcoin as an asset and as a technology but I don't trust what drives the market right now.
Is it a bubble? Maybe. I do recall though that every single new high - $0.30, dollar parity, $10, $30, $100, $1000 and gold parity, $2000, $10000, $20000 - was also called a bubble. Every time people said it was a bubble. Even dollar parity, because it was a "ponzi", "wasn't secure", etc. Really, I think that there were at least 10-12 times when people have said it was a bubble that I've noticed. It has been much more than 2 bubbles though. Each time may have been a bubble at the time, but for longer term, it didn't matter. Some people called the guy who bought the pizza for Laszlo stupid for doing it in payment for bitcoin because it was worthless - many others thought it was great. (Now the reverse is true calling Laszlo stupid for doing it, but he is anything but stupid.)
Remember EVERY time is different than the last. This time institutional buying is more long term than trading, e.g. things like short term trading on Coinbase/Coinbase Pro/Gemini vs MSTR, Square, Galaxy, MassMutual, Guggenheim, and of course, GBTC (which is in turn owned by places like ARK, Kinetics, etc.) From what I've read, these are long term holders looking for diversification. Would they panic sell? Perhaps, but much less likely than leveraged traderson any of the trading platforms or people in 2017 who were trying to make a quick buck and then panicked. This adds stability to the fiat price and also decreases supply for sale which alone will increase the fiat price, let alone the halving last year, and the increase in demand.
Sure each time people were saying "bubble" there was volatility, but likewise each time there was an order of magnitude or 2 growth in fiat price and then it came down some, but nowhere near back to the earlier prices. It then ended up retracing back to the next high.
I have said it before, but anyone who has bought and held over the past 11 years has done great. Even buying during the $1000 bubble, or the $30 bubble etc.
Likewise, each year that bitcoin survives makes it much more likely it won't collapse. 2010, 2011, collapse was possible, low in my opinion at the time, but possible. With time, with each institution and each person involved that likelihood has dropped. It is always still possible, but extremely unlikely now.
