Bitcoin Price Closes to $63,000 as Analysts Say Its Store of Value Thesis Remains Intact
Bitcoin traded around $63,000 on Monday, retreating from a two-month low hit on June 5 as a confluence of headwinds — ETF exits, heightened uncertainty, and volatility in artificial intelligence stocks — pushed the world’s largest cryptocurrency nearly 50% below its all-time high of $9026 on October 925.
The decline triggered the usual scenes of capitulation. Retail investors have largely retreated, and mainstream headlines have become more fear-mongering. But a growing chorus of establishment voices is pushing back hard.
In a report published on Monday, Wall Street brokerage analysts Bernstein said that the long-term thesis of the “store of value” of Bitcoin has not changed, even as Net inflows into the area of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and corporate treasury companies have fallen to $12 billion so far in 2026, down significantly from $60 billion in 2025.
The firm says the biggest selling pressure isn’t from ETF owners, but from treasury companies liquidating positions — ETFs have recorded only about $2.6 billion in annual outflows so far.
“Bitcoin’s boredom in this cycle should not be held against it,” wrote Bernstein, adding that the decline in selling pressure does not affect the case for Bitcoin ownership.
The brokerage’s report highlighted that 61% of Bitcoin in circulation has not been traded for more than a year – a figure that points to a base of holders unwilling to sell at current prices.
Bernstein maintained a $150,000 price target for Bitcoin by 2026, citing a structural shift in the investor base toward institutions that include wealth management platforms, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds.
The company has described the beginning of 2026 as part of the “weak bear” in the history of Bitcoin, arguing that the growth of acquisitions among banks and large investment firms separates the current decline of the previous crypto winter.
Institutions accumulate Bitcoin while the sales cycle
Near-term price pressures have several identifiable sources. Capital is swirling at a historic pace toward commercialization of AI, with hundreds of billions flowing into hyperscalers and large-cap tech names in recent months.
The SpaceX IPO, scheduled for June 12 in Nasdaq and targeting a value between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion, has drawn significant retail attention away from the digital asset, according to analysts who track the move. The sale of Bitcoin Isu has added more selling pressure to the market.
On the legislative side, the CLARITY Act — a comprehensive digital asset market structure bill that would split regulatory authority between the SEC and CFTC — cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May by a 15-9 vote.
The bill passed the House last July by a vote of 294-134. Its final passage into law could resolve years of regulatory uncertainty that has kept institutional money on the fringes of the market.
The senior crypto analyst of Brownstone Research Ben Lilly drew a direct parallel to the bear market of 2022, when BlackRock launched a private Bitcoin trust in August of that year in the depths of the decline – a move that preceded the launch of the most successful ETF in history, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), which reached $80 billion of assets below the previous record of five times the S & 0 ETF.
The same playbook, Lilly argued, also applies: institutions build while retailers are tested.
