Bitcoin (BTC) buyers with large balance sheets are treating the latest selloff as a chance to add exposure, Coinbase executive John D’Agostino said.
Key Points:
- D’Agostino said institutions, family offices and sovereign-linked buyers are not showing panic after Bitcoin’s drop below $60,000.
- He said stronger market infrastructure and about $100 billion in ETF exposure point to lasting demand.
- The Coinbase executive said leverage risk appears concentrated among retail traders on offshore exchanges, not large holders.
Bitcoin Buyers
D’Agostino, Coinbase’s head of institutional strategy, said that large investors are looking at Bitcoin’s decline as a discount, not an exit signal.
Bitcoin had fallen below $60,000 for the first time since October 2024, before trading at $62,746 at press time. D’Agostino declined to call a bottom, but said long-term allocators he speaks with had studied the asset for months or years.
“What I can tell you is I have the luxury of speaking to institutional investors. They’ve put months and years into looking at this asset class. So when they do that and it’s cheaper, they like it,” he said.
He said family offices in the UAE, along with government and sovereign-linked funds, were “not unhappy at being able to buy it at a discount.”
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Coinbase View
D’Agostino said Coinbase is not seeing institutional panic, even as macro pressure, higher-for-longer rates, weaker debasement trades and regulatory uncertainty weigh on the market.
He argued that Bitcoin’s support system is stronger than in past downturns, citing “institutional piping” and about $100 billion in ETF exposure. “So I think both retail and institutional are signaling this is a long term asset you want to hold,” he said.
On leverage, he said he was not aware of major institutional holders being “horrifically over levered” near a forced-selling threshold. He contrasted that with offshore retail trading, where extreme leverage can trigger fast liquidations.
D’Agostino framed Bitcoin as a commodity-style asset, where volatility can arrive quickly even when long-term demand holds. He said large allocators are weighing how to raise capital and buy an asset they “loved at $125k,” “liked at $100k” and “love even more at $65k.”
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