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in a <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/MARAHoldings/status/1861202618766311912″ rel=”nofollow”>interview On CNBC on Monday, Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA), shared his bullish outlook on bitcoin. He highlighted growing institutional interest and a favorable regulatory environment that could drive the price of btc to new highs.
Thiel dismissed the impact of the recent bitcoin halving, stating, “I think the halving had no effect.” Instead, he attributed bitcoin's price rise to the introduction of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) earlier this year. “In January, ETFs were launched that suddenly fueled the start of some institutional interest,” he noted.
Institutions are simply 'hoping to buy' bitcoin
While initial investments in these ETFs were predominantly retail, Thiel saw a shift as institutional players began to enter the market. “Then we started to see some pension funds starting to buy bitcoin-related ETFs and stocks, like our stock or MicroStrategy,” he added.
The CEO highlighted the potential impact of political developments on the btc market. “With the election, you know, Donald Trump ran on a platform that is very pro-bitcoin: bitcoin strategic reserve, mining in the US, etc.,” Thiel said. He suggested that stance could lead to a more favorable regulatory environment in the United States.
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“What that ended up driving is a big belief that all of a sudden the regulatory environment for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is going to get a lot better, that the United States is going to double down and actually potentially invest in bitcoin,” he explained. This anticipated change could pressure other nations to adopt similar policies, encouraging global adoption.
Thiel also highlighted strong market dynamics absorbing selling pressure from long-term holders. “Every bitcoin that was bought generated a profit, and long-term holders who had held bitcoin for years started liquidating a little bit to make some profits,” he said. Despite this, he highlighted the market's ability to recover: “There is so much demand in the market that it continues to absorb it.”
Addressing concerns about bitcoin's notorious volatility, Thiel stated that significant declines could be a thing of the past, at least in the short term. “I think the volatility of recent years, where you would peak and then see a 20% or 30% drop, has disappeared, at least in the short-term future,” he said. He believes institutional investors are prepared to aggressively enter the market. “I think what we're going to see is essentially institutions waiting to buy bitcoin,” Thiel predicted.
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He cited recent actions by large corporations to support his perspective. “If you look at MicroStrategy: they are (issuing) a $3 billion bond; “They are buying bitcoin very aggressively,” he said. “We raised a billion-dollar bond with a 0% coupon the same week that Michael Saylor did, and we went out and acquired hundreds of millions of dollars of bitcoin.” Thiel noted that this trend is gaining momentum: “A lot of people are starting to do this now.”
Concluding his thoughts, Thiel expressed confidence in bitcoin's upward trajectory. “Anyone who is selling is selling into a market where there is ample demand, and I think for the foreseeable future we will continue to see the price of bitcoin go up, you know, up and down, up and down, but overall the trend will be up.” ”, he stated.
In particular, Cantor Fitzgerald recently <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/CK_Cryptoklepto/status/1861186409178038758″ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>balanced his price target for MARA of $33 to $42. The review comes after Mara Holdings completed a major $1 billion convertible note offering last week. Of the $980 million raised, Mara used $199 million to repurchase $222 million in principal of its 2026 convertible notes. With $781 million in proceeds remaining, the company plans to purchase additional bitcoin, leveraging a strategy similar to MicroStrategy (MSTR).
However, unlike MicroStrategy, which focuses exclusively on capital market maneuvers to accumulate bitcoin, Mara also operates the largest publicly traded bitcoin mining operation by hash rate. Cantor analysts highlight this as a key differentiator with upside potential.
At the time of publication, btc was trading at $92,531.
Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
