BlackRock BTC Strategy Head Robbie Mitchnick Addresses Bitcoin's Recent Stagnation and Why Institutional Demand May Be Stronger Than Its Price Implies

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Robbie Mitchnick—Global Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock—addressed Bitcoin's recent stagnation and shared why he believes institutional demand may be stronger than its price implies.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Robbie Mitchnick, Global Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), discussed Bitcoin's recent stagnation and why he believes institutional demand may be stronger than its price implies.

Despite significant hopes pinned on regulatory developments and a “crypto-friendly” turn at the White House, Bitcoin has spent the early months of 2025 hovering around the mid-$80,000 range. This has prompted questions about what catalysts might drive the next price rally.

"Bitcoin is still up, let’s call it 15% or so since the beginning of November. A lot of that move was driven by a combination of interest from institutions and optimism around the potential for government endorsement under the Trump administration," Mitchnick explained.

However, he cautioned that accelerated, perhaps premature expectations of just how quickly some of these catalysts would start to arrive might have contributed to the market’s more recent price stagnation.

"Many investors and traders had anticipated an immediate spike to follow the White House’s pro-crypto moves. When those gains failed to materialize, some short-term participants began unwinding positions, contributing to downward pressure on Bitcoin’s price."

BlackRock's Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have brought a new wave of institutional exposure to the crypto market, but despite this, outflows have softened to start the year.

"2024 was pretty incredible, pretty historic on that front. 2025 to start has been more negative. We’ve seen some outflows in the category—relatively modest in the context of the overall asset base, which is close to $100 billion. And it’s mostly in the past month or so."

He attributed this downturn to hedge funds unwinding a spot–futures arbitrage trade that had double-digit yields in 2024 but has since dipped into the single digits. These outflows, he noted, are mainly from short-term traders, rather than the more traditional "buy-and-hold" investor base.

A central question raised in the interview was why Bitcoin has not acted as a safe haven—similar to gold—despite persistent economic uncertainty. While gold has rallied on investor concerns about the economy, Bitcoin has not mirrored that trajectory.

Mitchnick suggested that this discrepancy stems from market psychology and what he called "short-term correlation spikes."

"Bitcoin fundamentally on a long-term basis … should be uncorrelated or even inversely correlated against certain risk factors … But now it’s been extrapolated to things that don’t really make any sense at all—tariffs, economic fears—and the market’s commentary doesn’t reflect what Bitcoin fundamentally is."

He went on to emphasize Bitcoin’s unique attributes—its scarcity, decentralized nature, and existence "outside of any one country’s economic, political, or monetary system."

Over the long term, Mitchnick sees these properties as justifying Bitcoin’s "digital gold" comparison, but he concedes that investor behavior often treats it as a high-volatility, "risk-on" asset in the short run.

When asked about the US government’s stance—particularly in light of a Trump administration authorization for a strategic Bitcoin reserve—Mitchnick was cautious, noting that "a lot still remains to be determined on that front."

He emphasized that: "What we have clearly seen is a pretty emphatic signal of support and conviction in this industry and particularly in Bitcoin and Bitcoin’s uniqueness … Whether and on what timeline … that might be funded, there’s a few different sources … but it’s certainly not the only source of adoption catalyst in 2025."

Although speculation is building around whether the government will officially begin stockpiling Bitcoin, Mitchnick stressed that the broader institutional and wealth advisory community continues accumulating positions. These investors, in his view, remain "very excited" by current market conditions despite the recent downturn.

Mitchnick also addressed recent headwinds, including the ByBit hack that briefly dampened market sentiment. He suggested that heightened volatility can shake short-term traders out of the market, but longer-term, more sophisticated holders often see price dips as buying opportunities.

"Some of them were taking chips off the table a little bit in the [$100,000] range … Now they see this correction and a lot of them view it as sort of an irrational selloff … We’re trying to bring some quantitative rigor to that as well."

At press time, BTC traded at $84,197.