Analyst: Significant institutional fund rotation in Bitcoin; institutional demand remains intact

According to The Block, Bitcoin continued trading below $78,000 on Monday, following net outflows of $1.26 billion from spot Bitcoin ETFs during the week of May 18–22—the second consecutive week of outflows exceeding $1 billion. Nevertheless, Timothy Misir, Research Head at BRN, noted that institutional demand has not vanished but is rotating: during the same period, the XRP ETF attracted $22 million in inflows, the Solana ETF drew $16 million, the newly launched Hyperliquid HYPE ETF garnered $72 million, while the Ethereum ETF saw outflows of $216 million. Ethereum also faced pressure due to the SEC’s delay of its tokenized stock trading initiative, though it posted a modest rebound on Sunday amid heightened optimism surrounding the Iran deal. On the options front, for Bitcoin expiring on May 29, the largest open interest concentrations were at the $75,000 put and $80,000 call strikes; for Ethereum, the largest open interest concentration was at the $2,100 put strike. On the macro front, U.S. and European markets were closed for public holidays, and analysts warned of low market liquidity. Should the Iran deal materialize, it could trigger a sharp drop in oil prices and push equity markets to new highs.