Can bitcoin survive without institutional investors

[Wakate]

If Bitcoin could survive from the beginning when the price was below one cent to the current stage it is now without any compromise, so what are you telling us? Bitcoin survived through the thin and ugly seasons and their was no compromise till now. Many countries tried and ban Bitcoin preventing their citizens from holding Bitcoin but that never changed the authencity, neutrality and the decentralized nature of Bitcoin. Till tomorrow, Bitcoin will remain firm and the reliability will stay firm.

[Rgram]

Over the years, we’ve seen a number of big companies come into the bitcoin space, companies like BlackRock and even some traditional banks Have opt into bitcoin.
With the Bitcoin ETFs and cooperate treasury allocation becoming more common, institutional and companies involvement have grown a lot.
This has raised a question in my mind: If these institutions suddenly decides to leave the market, what effect will it have on Bitcoin.

The most common effect that wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary would be dumping of Bitcoin price and that largely what is being experienced in the current bear market and wouldn’t be no different with the exit of institutional investors buts, there is always room for recovery and with more and more people getting to study and invest in Bitcoin, it wouldn’t take a bit of time for the recovery to happen but it would happen.
Bitcoin doesn’t need the big names, big institutions and corporations to survive, it only needs the people to believe and understand the concept of decentralization.

[legiteum]

I do believe that bitcoin can survive without this institutions . If they are to pull out of the market bitcoin will likely still survive, just that the growth may be slow and volatility may temporarily reduce.

What do you mean by, "survive"? Bitcoin was doing just fine, technically speaking, in 2010 when the price was $0.01 per coin. All Bitcoin needs is a few dozen people and some servers and Bitcoin will... exist.

If your question is, however, "will Bitcoin maintain its current price level if institutional investors dump their Bitcoin", then the answer is emphatically NO. Retail investors simply don't have enough money to run up an instrument to a $trillion in market cap like Bitcoin enjoys now. An institutional pullback of Bitcoin would send the price down 90% or more, and it would never recover until those institutions returned. That's true for any investment instrument like stocks, commodities, and so on.

So if you mean, "survive" in the sense of the network continuing to function technically, then yes. Virtually everybody could sell their Bitcoin and the network would still function.

If you mean it in the way that 99% of Bitcoin holders assume you mean it: as in, will Bitcoin still be valued in the billions of dollars? Then the answer is NO.

[Nwada001]

If institutional investors are to sell off and leave the market, the market will indeed suffer a great temporary crash, which that sell-off will cause, but that won't be the end of Bitcoin. Just as it has been surviving all these years with their large buying, it will only shake the market a little as some investor confidence will fade out and require time to build back before they can decide to buy back and hold, but we can survive without them.

[Rockstarguy]

Bitcoin has always succeeded, even before these institutional investors adopted Bitcoin. Institutions investing in Bitcoin is a recent phenomenon, while individuals have been investing in Bitcoin since its early days, and Bitcoin has always been doing well.

Whether institutions invest in Bitcoin or not, Bitcoin will still survive. There are individuals accumulating Bitcoin very well and holding it. If Bitcoin can succeed right from the beginning, then it means it will always survive.

[dwyane36]

If institutional investors are to sell off and leave the market, the market will indeed suffer a great temporary crash, which that sell-off will cause, but that won't be the end of Bitcoin. Just as it has been surviving all these years with their large buying, it will only shake the market a little as some investor confidence will fade out and require time to build back before they can decide to buy back and hold, but we can survive without them.

If I am not mistaken, institutional investors have been actively interested in Bitcoin since 2020, whereas before that, there were only futures on exchanges such as CME Group and CBOE.
In fact, the BTC chart clearly shows how institutional investors have influenced the price. So if, for some reason, they lose interest and decide to leave, it will be a major shock for both BTC and the entire cryptocurrency market. Nevertheless, BTC would obviously survive without institutional investors, but in that case, the BTC price would most likely be in the range of $10-20k.

[Rabata]

I think your text has given a beautiful lesson where it is being said that when Bitcoin did not have any ETFs and there were no institutional investors, Bitcoin was moving at its own pace, so now it is definitely more mature. If something comes back to a better position than before, then there will be more expectations about it. Certainly, if large institutions like BlackRock exit Bitcoin investment, then there may be a temporary drop in the price of Bitcoin. Some will panic and sell, which may be more than normal, but Bitcoin is not going to end. Because Bitcoin is able to maintain its status without these investors.

Another point is that if an investment institution is profitable or sees potential, why would they withdraw from their investment? However, if someone is profitable, they can withdraw from their investment according to their benefits, but in that case, it cannot be said that the position of other investors will be the same. Even if one investment institution withdraw, several other investment institutions may increase their investment. Bitcoin investors is gradually increasing and will continue to increase in the future.

[Smartprofit]

In fact, it's not entirely clear whether institutional players actually own Bitcoin. That is, whether they are dedicated holders who bought it with their own money. 🙋

As far as I know, institutional investors don't take the risks associated with owning Bitcoin. For example, investors in spot ETFs are ordinary retail investors (so-called housewives). Michael Saylor also uses other people's money to buy Bitcoin (by issuing stocks and bonds).

The entire modern financial system is built on inflation. And Bitcoin is essentially a deflationary asset. In my opinion, institutional players have absolutely no interest in Bitcoin's success. Yes, they are willing to make money on Bitcoin derivatives, but their attitude toward Bitcoin is more hostile than friendly.

[Emeraldo]

If institutional investors are to sell off and leave the market, the market will indeed suffer a great temporary crash, which that sell-off will cause, but that won't be the end of Bitcoin. Just as it has been surviving all these years with their large buying, it will only shake the market a little as some investor confidence will fade out and require time to build back before they can decide to buy back and hold, but we can survive without them.

If institutional investors leave the market, this would make the market to crash unexpectedly making the price of Bitcoin and the altcoins market to plummate undoubtedly. This will make the price of Bitcoin to take longer time before the crypto space recover.
Institutional investors have the role to play in the crypto space and their absence will make Bitcoin to move sluggish making the market space less reactive for traders to have the opportunity to trade conveniently.

[Maslate]

Institutional investors have made positive changes with bitcoin. They offer great advantages and have attracted new investors to trust and invest more of bitcoin. But if time comes they'll suddenly leave the market, bitcoin will surely experience a sudden price dip.

But hey, bitcoin will definitely manage to return to its price. The price crash will only be temporary, and eventually bitcoin price will recover on its own, even without institutional investors around. But we will expect that there'll be less investors coming in then, however bitcoin will still create slowly but surely progress.

[serjent05]

If institutional investors are to sell off and leave the market, the market will indeed suffer a great temporary crash, which that sell-off will cause, but that won't be the end of Bitcoin. Just as it has been surviving all these years with their large buying, it will only shake the market a little as some investor confidence will fade out and require time to build back before they can decide to buy back and hold, but we can survive without them.

If institutional investors leave the market, this would make the market to crash unexpectedly making the price of Bitcoin and the altcoins market to plummate undoubtedly. This will make the price of Bitcoin to take longer time before the crypto space recover.

This is yet to be known until it exactly happens.  I think Bitcoin will just do it normal market way.  If price is dump, people will flock in to buy cheaper Bitcoin and then recover as the halving approaches, then soar to record another ATH before transitioning to bear market.  Remember, Bitcoin market is not yet saturated and there is still a lot of room to grow.  If institutional investors step out of the Bitcoin market, another investors will step in.

Institutional investors have the role to play in the crypto space and their absence will make Bitcoin to move sluggish making the market space less reactive for traders to have the opportunity to trade conveniently.

I believe there is always someone who can take charge on the role of these institutional investors, their role is not unique anyway.

[Hypnosis00]

Bitcoin has already survived its early stage without the presence of institutional investors so I don't think it will create so much difference when these institutional investors start leaving the market, there might be some price dump but its definitely manageable.

But if these regular investors start leaving the market, as well as the miners and developers, I guess that would be the end of bitcoin. No investment will continue to thrive if the major investors do not trust it anymore and start leaving it behind.

[aoluain]

This has raised a question in my mind: If these institutions suddenly decides to leave the market, what effect will it have on Bitcoin.

 

First you have to separate "the market" from Bitcoin.
To answer your Q. specifically - nothing at all would happen to Bitcoin, developers, miners and
node runners would continue to operate. All transactions would be  processed as before and
Decentralization would remain.

The market on the other hand would react because its linked to everyone's sentiment. It would
be turbulent for a time but would settle down.

Bitcoin survived through the years when many financial institutions were attacking it and would
do so again.

[ultrloa]

Bitcoin has already survived its early stage without the presence of institutional investors so I don't think it will create so much difference when these institutional investors start leaving the market, there might be some price dump but its definitely manageable.

But if these regular investors start leaving the market, as well as the miners and developers, I guess that would be the end of bitcoin. No investment will continue to thrive if the major investors do not trust it anymore and start leaving it behind.

Maybe the difference is the price growth, since Bitcoin would provably to have huge pump if it doesn't get any demand from institutional investors.

We provably see this coin struggle to get back at $100k that's why those additional demands what those institutions can pour on Bitcoin is really helpful.

Maybe on that scenario you have mentioned could trigger the end of Bitcoin, but at this point for sure that end thing will not exist and Bitcoin will continue to succeed. For sure it will continue to survive since many people will still invest on Bitcoin even if the presence of those institutional investors decline, but I doubt it will happen.

Even market is in bad shape still it caught the attention of more investors and chances for its recovery still so high to happen in future.

[FortuneFollower]

Bitcoin has already survived its early stage without the presence of institutional investors so I don't think it will create so much difference when these institutional investors start leaving the market, there might be some price dump but its definitely manageable.

But if these regular investors start leaving the market, as well as the miners and developers, I guess that would be the end of bitcoin. No investment will continue to thrive if the major investors do not trust it anymore and start leaving it behind.

BTC would be there, but not with the price tag everybody anticipates.. I don't think it would be the end for it.

[Finestream]

But I will like to know what you all think, do you think that institutional money is essential for bitcoin long term survival, and does it have a way of threatening the decentralization

I don't think funds from institutional investors threaten BTC's decentralization. BTC does not have any central authority in control and it does not matter how much funds comes from institutions, they'd not be able to control the network. Denying the influence of institutions in the network would be stupid, but their influence is in the price of BTC. Inflows from institutional investors help to move the price of BTC up, but that is as much as it can do, it does not transcend to control of the network.

Bitcoin's decentralized nature will always remain, because that is how bitcoin was known because of its unique feature. Same with volatility, bitcoin may remain volatile for good, even without the institutional investors that highly influenced bitcoin and its market price.

So if we're talking about survival, bitcoin has already realized that mission years ago. These institutional investors only provide higher rate of survival, but that does not mean that even without them, bitcoin will stop making progress and eventually shut down its operation.

[finaleshot2016]

Before institutions joined the trend, they're the one who's fudding and don't trust BTC.

There's a lot of happenings without them, so YES, BTC can literally survive any situation without them, they're just a small portion of the BTC. We can't deny, they really help the volume and good market, but when it comes to survivability and independency, BTC can go with the flow by itself. BTC ran by its own community who trusted and of course, it's selling its use case that could change the finance system, that's why people are investing to it without the influence of institutional investors.

[purple_sparkles]

I think that at the current stage, bitcoin can absolutely continue to exist and thrive even without institutional investors, since that was essentially the case in the past. They became interested in bitcoin only after it had already become so widespread and popular. It’s  possible that in its early days some large investors may have supported its development, but now, even if something changes, it would only be able to weaken its foundation temporarily.

[sunsilk]

The new generation of bitcoiners would not handle the stress and uncertainty of the old generation, and that's why they're naturally the new generation. 

So true. They're able to skip those dark ages in the past when most people think holders are just another bunch of internet scammers advertising this Bitcoin thing.

The roller coaster ride in the past sure was fun for the early adopters but the stress that it has given was too much. But now, it's all paid off.

Before institutions joined the trend, they're the one who's fudding and don't trust BTC.

And that's why when they've realized that they can't beat it, they've joined and made ETFs and even holding their own BTC reserves now.

[Oshio-man]

If Bitcoin could survive from the beginning when the price was below one cent to the current stage it is now without any compromise, so what are you telling us? Bitcoin survived through the thin and ugly seasons and their was no compromise till now. Many countries tried and ban Bitcoin preventing their citizens from holding Bitcoin but that never changed the authencity, neutrality and the decentralized nature of Bitcoin.

I think some of the organization that are going into bitcoin now never think bitcoin will reach this level that will draw the attention of the world, but majority of organizations will be showing interest in bitcoin investment, it surprised me some times when some people think organizations are the ones making bitcoin to be alive today which is a big lie because bitcoin can survive without organization investing in bitcoin, a time will come when the whole world will make bitcoin legal tender because they have seen the benefit of bitcoin and what bitcoin will do to those countries that make it official for their citizens to take advantage of legal tender to grow their investment to eliminate poverty completely from their countries.