Despite Bitcoin’s sharp jumps and collapses, the cryptocurrency continues to be attractive to top industry players. For example, in the second half of the week, the largest public BTC miner called Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) reported acquiring 4,144 BTC worth 249 million, that is, at an average price of $59,500 per coin.

As a result, the “strategic Bitcoin reserve” now consists of more than 25,000 bitcoins. Well, to raise the last batch of $300 million, the company put up convertible bonds, which were sold to qualified institutional buyers.

ASIC miner for Bitcoin mining

What will happen to the Bitcoin rate

As a reminder, the funding rate or funding rate is a mechanism used on exchanges to keep the price of open-ended futures near the spot price of Bitcoin. Unlike traditional futures, open-ended contracts have no expiration date, and the funding rate itself helps to balance supply and demand in the market.

The rate is paid or received by traders on both sides of the transaction – those who hold long positions and expect the industry to grow, as well as short position holders who expect the market to crash.

Funding is calculated based on the difference between the spot price and the perpetual futures price. If the futures price is higher than the spot price, the funding rate will be positive and traders with long positions will pay traders with short positions. If the price is lower – vice versa, short positions pay long positions.

Dynamics of the funding rate in Bitcoin trading

According to Cointelegraph’s sources, the last time something similar in the performance of Bitcoin-based futures was seen in October 2023. Current funding rates are at their lowest level since early 2024, suggesting a serious dominance of short positions in Bitcoin trading. Consequently, many investors are betting on a drawdown in the coin market in the short term.

Average fundings across several exchanges also turned negative for the first time in a long time. In general, this indicates a “shift towards the bears” who are pressurising the BTC rate with their trades and affecting the overall situation in the coin industry.

Additional negative factors were emphasised in the report of analysts at 10x Research. In particular, they noted the lack of interest of institutional investors in Bitcoin, even after another fall in the main cryptocurrency’s rate below $60,000. This situation suggests that large players are “less inclined to invest at current price levels.”

However, there is positive news: the acceptance of large institutional investors of spot Bitcoin-ETFs in the second quarter of this year still increased significantly. Experts from K33 Research recorded an increase in this indicator at 27 per cent, meaning that exchange-traded funds based on cryptocurrencies continue to attract the attention of players with large capital.

Increase in the number of owners of shares of cryptocurrency ETFs among large institutional investors

In total, more than 262 new firms invested in spot Bitcoin ETFs the day before. This was reported by Vetle Lunde, Senior Analyst at K33 Research.

According to Form 13F filings with the Securities Commission, 1,199 professional firms had investments in US spot ETFs as of 30 June, an increase of 262 firms from the previous quarter’s result.

Institutional share ownership of cryptocurrency ETF shares

The continued adoption of ETFs could significantly strengthen Bitcoin’s price and reduce its volatility, as institutionalisers hold large amounts of capital sufficient to influence the crypto market as a whole.

BTC itself needs further institutional adoption to reach new all-time highs. However, despite the growing popularity of ETFs specifically among large players, retail investors are still the largest holders of exchange-traded fund shares. Here’s a rejoinder from an expert at K33 Research.

While retail investors still hold the majority of funds, institutional investors increased their share of total capital under management in ETFs to 21.15 percent in the second quarter.


Note that the meaningful changes are happening directly within the ETFs themselves. This week, the value of crypto assets underlying exchange traded funds from BlackRock, a major investment company, for the first time exceeded the corresponding figure for Grayscale instruments. In the case of BlackRock we are talking about products under the tickers IBIT and ETHA, while the cryptocurrency portfolio of exchange traded funds is represented by GBTC, BTC Mini, ETHE and ETH Mini.

The value of bitcoins and ethers in BlackRock's products reached $21.21 billion, while Grayscale's result is $21.20 billion. Accordingly, the giant led by Larry Fink managed to beat the company with a clear advantage in this area. Recall that before their transformation into ETFs, GBTC and ETHE instruments existed in the form of trusts and attracted a huge number of investors.


BlackRock CEO Larry Fink

This morning, Bitcoin’s price fell back into the $59,000 zone. Accordingly, crypto investors now have no reason for optimism – this is clearly reflected in the Fear and Greed Index, which is compiled by Alternative analysts.

Now the index is at the level of 25 points out of 100, which characterises the extreme fear of investors and their unwillingness to get involved with new positions in BTC. At the same time, last month the index exceeded the level of 60 points, which spoke about the greed of investors.

Actual indicators of the Bitcoin Investors Fear and Greed Index today


The current situation in the cryptocurrency market does not look attractive in the short term, as large investors are in no hurry to buy back coins after the next collapses. However, over time, the industry will receive positive factors. After all, in September the U.S. Federal Reserve will finally start to reduce the base interest rate, which will increase the activity of economic entities. And more accessible capital will surely lead to an influx of funds into the crypto sphere as well.