sport football: Wall Street Is on a Bitcoin Buying Binge

Wall Street Is on a Bitcoin Buying Binge

When I opened the door to the storage closet, a burst of hot air smacked me in the face.

The year was 2017. I was studying for my master's degree in finance. And to make some money on the side, I took a job as an assistant to a financial advisor.

One day, I went to the storage closet to get printer paper. But what I found inside shocked me…

There were nearly a dozen buzzing computer rigs zip-tied to the storage racks. They looked similar to the ones in the image below.

Source: Wikipedia

That was my first time coming across bitcoin miners.

After digging deeper, I eventually found out my boss was mining bitcoin to recover funds he had lost on behalf of his clients. Unfortunately, the platform he used shut down… And his clients lost access to their bitcoin.

I don't know whether the funds were lost due to a hack or mismanagement… But it was my first introduction to bitcoin and the blockchain.

Bitcoin has come a long way since I stumbled across my boss's ramshackle mining operation in his storage closet.

Today, mining rigs look like this…

Mobile Data Center for Mining

I got a first-hand look at the mobile center during a recent trip to the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. Bitcoin miners can fit hundreds of rigs into the center and deploy them near low-cost energy sources to keep cool.

The bottom line is the crypto industry is almost unrecognizable from when I first opened that storage closet in 2017 and saw bitcoin miners zip-tied to the shelves.

Right now, we're in the accumulation phase of bitcoin by institutions. And it's sucking up all the oxygen in the room from altcoins.

But once altcoins get a chance to breathe again, we'll see an alt season for the ages. That's why selling your altcoin positions right now would be a life-altering mistake.

The Bitcoin Accumulation Phase Is Underway

Over the past few months, we've seen several corporations announce bitcoin purchases over the last month:

GameStop purchased 4,710 bitcoins to hold on its balance sheet.
Strive Asset Management raised $750 million to buy bitcoin for its balance sheet.
And Japanese company Metaplanet purchased a total of 8,888 bitcoins.

Over the coming months, I believe we're going to see a lot more companies accumulate bitcoin. They'll take the attitude of "if you can't beat them, join them."

So it's no surprise bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are seeing record inflows and crushing nearly every other asset class, just like Teeka predicted they would.

In its first year alone, BlackRock's Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) surpassed $70 billion in assets under management (AUM).

That's record time for that amount of capital accumulation… And it blows ETFs for every other asset class out of the water.

Source: x.com/EricBalchunas

As you can see from the chart above, IBIT hit $70 billion 341 days. By comparison:

Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF (VOO) took 1,701 days to hit $70 billion.
BlackRock's developed nation ETF (IEFA) took 1,773 days to hit $70 billion.
BlackRock's emerging markets ETF (IEMG) took 2,063 days to hit $70 billion.

Remember, there are 11 other spot bitcoin ETFs. In total, they hold a combined $133 billion in assets.

This is what I mean when I say we're witnessing the "bitcoin accumulation phase."

We're no longer talking about your Average Joe buying a little bit of bitcoin here and there. We're talking about multibillion-dollar corporations buying truckloads of bitcoin every month.

Long story short, we are at the doorstep of the single biggest migration of capital and adoption into the digital asset space anyone has ever seen.

And some of that capital will migrate to altcoins as companies, institutions, and individuals seek higher returns that altcoin season offers.

What Does All This Mean for Altcoins?

There's no sugar coating it: Altcoins have had a rough couple months despite bitcoin making new all-time highs.

But this has happened before, even during a crypto bull market.

First, money flows into bitcoin, which is considered the gold standard of crypto.

Once bitcoin's gains are behind it, investors go down the risk curve to altcoins, searching for the next big winner.

Source: ChatGPT

We can identify these changing phases by looking at the bitcoin dominance rate.

If you're an altcoin investor, the bitcoin dominance rate is one of the most important metrics in crypto. It's the percentage of the total crypto market cap that bitcoin takes up.

When BTC dominance is high, it generally means investors are more confident in bitcoin relative to other cryptocurrencies. When BTC dominance is low, it means investors are more willing to take risks on altcoins.

As you can see, bitcoin dominance rises sharply during the first half of the bull cycle. By the end of it, bitcoin's dominance rate drops sharply.

When the bitcoin dominance rate drops, it signals altcoin season is about to open.

We saw this during the 2017 bull market. From April 2016 through March 2017, bitcoin climbed roughly 224%.

But from March 2017 on, the gears shifted. Bitcoin climbed another 1,371% over the next eight months while the total altcoin market climbed 58,772%.

The same pattern played out during the 2021 bull market. First, bitcoin soared 1,100% from January 2019 to December 2020. Meanwhile, altcoins barely budged.

But from January 2021 through May, altcoins outpaced bitcoin, 721% versus just 42%.

Most recently, bitcoin ran 314% from January 2023 to October 2024. But by November 2024, altcoins took the lead, running 128% higher while bitcoin lagged at 58%.

During that brief alt season, we booked gains of 826% and 932% on two AI agent tokens in our Inside Crypto portfolio.

Now, all that capital won't flow into every altcoin. Most are trash.

Our research suggests the biggest gains from altcoin season will come from certain subsectors of crypto tokens that are solving real-world problems and will eventually generate revenues as mass adoption accelerates.

The one I'm most bullish on is AI agents.

If you've been following me the past few months, you know AI agent coins are one of our highest-conviction ideas for this cycle.

As a short refresher, AI agents are very intelligent applications of AI technology built around a specific task tailored to you.

Imagine having a room full of the world's best personal assistants. So you would have the world's best executive assistant. The world's best health coach. The world's best vacation planner. And so on…

That's the promise of AI agents… Having all these applications at your fingertips, tailored to your needs and preferences, and needing little to no input from you.

Teeka recently put together his most recent research briefing on how he sees the AI agent trend playing out.

He also wrote a special report on what our research suggests are the top six names in the space. These are coins we believe could make you a life-changing amount of money this year.

As bitcoin hits its AOL moment, the superstars-in-waiting in crypto will soon have their moment to shine. And you'll want to be ready before then.

You can watch a replay of his research briefing right here. It won't be available for long, so be sure to view Teeka's latest AI agent briefing now.

I know watching altcoins lag behind while bitcoin reaches new highs is frustrating. But know this: Bitcoin is acting like a bulldozer paving a path for the altcoins. And what's ahead will be an altcoin season unlike anything we've ever seen.

Keep Stacking Bitcoin!

Houston Molnar