Bitcoin At A Discount? Coinbase Exec Says Institutions And Govts Are Buying

Coinbase’s head of institutional strategy, John D’Agostino, says large investors are not retreating from Bitcoin’s latest selloff, even after the asset fell below $60,000 for the first time since October 2024. Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box on June 8, D’Agostino said institutional investors, family offices and sovereign-linked buyers are treating the drawdown as an opportunity to accumulate rather than a reason to exit.

“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,” D’Agostino said.

“I just got off a plane from the Middle East. And I can tell you that the family offices in the UAE and the government and sovereign funds that I’m putting the effort into buying this asset class are not unhappy at being able to buy it at a discount.”

D’Agostino’s core argument was not that Bitcoin’s price had necessarily found a floor, but that the institutional market around the asset is materially stronger than in prior drawdowns. He said Coinbase is seeing the “institutional piping” that supports Bitcoin and other crypto assets continue to develop through both bullish and bearish market environments.

Compared with previous CNBC appearances during stronger price conditions, he said the market now has a “shockingly stronger level of infrastructure.” That infrastructure, he argued, is what many institutional investors are focused on when assessing whether Bitcoin is becoming a more durable long-term allocation.

“So I think both retail and institutional are signaling this is a long term asset you want to hold,” he said.

Asked to explain the selloff, D’Agostino said Kernen had identified the main consensus factors: risk-off positioning, investors selling liquid assets to fund other opportunities, higher-for-longer interest rates, weaker support for the debasement trade and uncertainty around regulatory clarity. He did not frame those pressures as irrelevant, but argued that volatility is a feature of long-duration commodity-like assets.

He said his background leads him to think of Bitcoin as a commodity-style asset, where volatility can come and go while long-term demand remains intact. He also pointed to pending policy work in Washington, saying that market structure and tax reform may be unexciting topics but could be important for institutional adoption. “We have seven bills circulating that will do great things for the institutional piping that supports Bitcoin and other crypto assets,” he said.

On leverage, D’Agostino said he is not aware of any large institutional Bitcoin holders that are “horrifically over levered” at levels close enough to create a specific forced-selling threshold. He contrasted that with retail traders on offshore exchanges, where extreme leverage can result in rapid liquidations during liquidity shocks.

“For some of the larger entities that hold Bitcoin with leverage, they seem to have an endless ability to go into the market and bring in more capital to support their buying activities,” he said.

D’Agostino closed by saying he is not seeing institutional panic. Instead, he said large allocators are evaluating the cheapest ways to raise new capital and increase exposure to an asset they “loved at $125k,” “liked at $100k” and “love even more at $65k.”

At press time, BTC traded at $63,345.