Strategy, a company led by Michael Saylor that has made the collection of Bitcoin its main business, bought 76.6 million crypto last week, increasing its total value to 762,099 BTC – about 3.5% of the entire Bitcoin supply.
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Wall Street broker Bernstein used that move as a basis to justify one of the market’s boldest price calls: Bitcoin hitting $150,000 before the year is out.
Institutional Fees Flow
Bernstein senior analyst Gautam Chhugani presented an outlook to clients on Monday, saying that BTC has recovered its price after months of decline.
The call, if correct, would mean the decline to around $60,000 in early February was the lowest point in the current decline – and that everything from here points up.
Bitcoin was trading past $71,000 at the time of the report, which means that the goal of $150,000 represents a gain of more than 110% from current levels.
Chugani pointed to two forces that he believes will push the price there: growing inflows into BTC exchanges and growing corporate demand.
The numbers that support that claim are hard to ignore. Bitcoin spot ETFs pulled in $167 million in a single day this week — their first positive day in four sessions — and have attracted $1.6 billion in inflows since the start of March.
The market gained slightly higher at the beginning of the week after reports that US President Donald Trump ordered a five-day moratorium on strikes on Iran. Bitcoin rose to $71,750 on Monday before easing.
Corporate Buyers Continue to Come In
Beyond Strategy, institutional interest is growing. Australian pension fund Hostplus announced plans to offer clients exposure to Bitcoin through self-directed portfolios.
Morgan Stanley, one of the biggest names in global banking, has updated the SEC filing of the US Bitcoin spot ETF, a sign that the product may be closer to launch than previously expected.
Bernstein described the Strategy as a high-beta play on Bitcoin — meaning its stock tends to move sharply in the same direction as Bitcoin, only higher. Despite MSTR shares falling 50% from their highs, Chugani set a $450 price target on the stock, betting the company’s large Bitcoin balance sheet will pay off as prices recover.
Not Everyone Agrees The Bottom Is In
Bernstein’s optimism is not shared across the board. Veteran chart analyst Ali Martinez has set a scenario where Bitcoin falls to $41,500 by mid-October 2026 before any meaningful recovery begins.
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Standard Chartered Bank has repeatedly warned that Bitcoin may revisit the $50,000 mark first, citing weak economic conditions and limited demand. The bank also cut its own Bitcoin forecast for 2026 from $150,000 to $100,000.
The split among analysts shows how uncertain this market remains. Bitcoin has yet to match the scale of the correction seen in past bear markets when the February lows hit – that would make this one of the shallowest pullbacks from an all-time high in the commodity’s history.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
