Adam Back: Institutional capital inflow into Bitcoin is slower than expected; building positions may take 12 to 18 months

Mars Finance News, some observers see Morgan Stanley’s earlier this month entry into the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF as a catalyst to end the current crypto bear market, citing the large distribution capacity of this Wall Street giant’s $8 trillion wealth advisory network. But Blockstream CEO and early contributor to the Bitcoin community Adam Back says “not so fast.” Back was recently speculated by The New York Times to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous founder of Bitcoin — he denies this. Back states that, from positive market signals, Bitcoin ETFs could be the most important development in the near term, even more so than a pro-crypto U.S. government, but the process is slower than most realize. Back says, “I think one misconception people might have is that institutional adoption is very slow. So ETFs have already been bought, but when BlackRock suggests allocating 2% to 4% in their general stock portfolios, fund managers haven’t done it yet. They will, but more slowly than people expect.” He notes that investors won’t rush in overnight, and building positions could take a year or even 18 months. Regarding prices, Back mentions the need to consider the cyclical nature of Bitcoin’s four-year halving cycle. He points out that even if some commentators believe the four-year cycle is breaking, “people expect it to happen, so they sell, and then it really happens,” and declines can still occur. This logic only changes when people see the market strengthening, which is currently manifesting as institutional capital inflows. Back states that regarding recent comments about quantum computing hardware accelerating and potentially threatening Bitcoin cryptography, institutions are more systematic in risk management, focusing on tail risks, while retail investors see it as a distant future risk.