Despite the growing institutional presence in cryptocurrency, retail sentiment is just as important as it was when Wall Street was largely on the sidelines, according to Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten.
“It still is. You have to remember that BlackRock doesn’t own Bitcoin and Fidelity owns Bitcoin. It’s actually bought by a bunch of retail accounts,” Klippsten he said during an interview with Cointelegraph posted on YouTube on Tuesday.
Cory Klippsten spoke with Cointelegraph at BitcoinVegas 2026. Source: Cointelegraph
“You know they’re buying it in a wrap. But they still have to take the actual supply and keep it. And that comes from the supply. So, you know, there’s still real demand in ETFs,” Klippsten said, adding:
“There are some paper products and bills and things like that that are weird and take a little time to get through the system. There’s something to the idea that there’s a larger supply in certain ways. But at the end of the day, if you want real Bitcoin on the chain, the fact that you can get it is what makes Bitcoin unique.”
U.S.-based Bitcoin spot ETFs have seen a total of $2.90 billion in net outflows since May 15 according to according to Farside data, while Bitcoin slipped approximately 9.5% over the same period. At the time of publication, Bitcoin was trading at $73,630, according to on CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin is down 2.87% over the past 30 days. (CoinMarketCap)
Meanwhile, crypto market sentiment has been volatile in 2026. Crypto Fear and Greed Indexwhich measures overall crypto market sentiment, posted an “Extreme Fear” rating of 23 on Friday, signaling that investors are taking a cautious approach to the crypto market.
Bitcoin Price Outlook for 2026: Little Chances
Klippsten said his odds of Bitcoin hitting a new all-time high in 2026 now look slim.
Related: Bitcoin drops out of top 10 global assets as market cap drops below $1.5 trillion
He said he thinks there’s about a 50% chance we’ll see a new all-time high this year while Bitcoin was still trading around $95,000 earlier this year, but given that it’s down about 23% since then, his odds have fallen.
“I thought there was probably about a 50% chance that we’d see a new all-time record this year. And I’d say, given that we’re still in the 70s and, you know, and we’re down all the way to 60, I’d probably put that down to about a 20 or 25% chance that we get a new (high),” he said.
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