Bitcoin (BTC) jumped above $8,600 - what’s going on

• Institutional interest in digital currencies remains strong, according to Grayscale’s head.
• Bakkt’s trading volumes are picking up after a lame start.

The head of  Grayscale  Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary believes institutional investors continue demonstrating strong interest in digital assets. To prove her point she said that 84% of $85 million raised by cryptocurrency startup, owned by Digital Currency Group,  came from institutions. 

“I get asked this a lot; there is this rhetoric in media of when institutional investors are going to get involved when they are gonna start investing. It’s ironic because we see institutional investors investing with us all the time and that’s been the case for a long time now,” she said.

This theory is also confirmed by TokenAnalyst data. The research company discovered that retail investors had been leaving the industry, while institutional players poured in to take their place.

Notably, Bakkt's trading volume jumped to 224 BTC ($1.9 mln at current prices), which is low, but still, an improvement from meager 50 BTC registered during the previous week. A steady increase of the exchange’s volumes may signal that the demand for its product is growing.  

At the time of writing, BTC/USD is changing hands at $5,590, off the recent high hit at $8,690. The first digital currency gained over 4% of its value in recent 24 hours and stayed mostly unchanged since the beginning of the day. A sustainable move above $8,550 barrier bodes well for bitcoin bulls as it negates an immediate bearish scenario.