Global Bitcoin Divides Market sentiment is broadening as U.S. institutional investors remain steady while offshore traders exit positions.
This gap is most obvious in the futures market. Greg Cipolaro, director of research at NYDIG, said CME, the preferred platform for U.S. hedge funds and institutional desks, shows traders are still paying a premium to hold long Bitcoin.
This is clear on an annualized basis over one month, which is essentially a markup of the futures price relative to the spot price, which is still higher than its offshore peer Deribit.
“A more pronounced decline in offshore basis points to waning appetite for leveraged long exposure,” Cipolaro wrote. “The widening spread between CME and Deribit basis can serve as a real-time measure of geographic risk appetite.”
Bitcoin fell to $60,000 earlier this month before rebounding. Some blamed the sell-off on growing concerns that quantum computing will undermine the cryptographic security of systems. NYDIG found that the numbers did not support this explanation.
For one, Bitcoin’s performance closely correlates with that of publicly traded quantum computing companies like IONQ Inc. (IONQ) and D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS). If quantum risks do weigh on cryptocurrencies, these stocks will rise while Bitcoin will fall.
Instead, they fell together, signaling a general decline in interest in long-term, future-driven assets. On top of that, search data on Google Trends shows that interest in “quantum computing Bitcoin” increases when the price of Bitcoin increases.
