Bitcoin is testing fresh highs this week as institutional capital re-enters the market, according to Pantera Capital’s portfolio manager Cosmo Jiang.
Speaking to CNBC on Friday, Jiang characterized the current momentum as a reversal in positioning among sophisticated investors—those who had been sidelined or holding short positions are now moving to the long side. The shift comes as bitcoin surged more than 23% over the past seven days, touching $79,319 intraday before settling near $77,412.
“From everything we see, positioning is starting to reverse,” Jiang said. “People are going from very much on the sidelines and even net short positioning to now realizing they want to be long, for what could be a very big technology.”
Regulatory Catalyst Sparks Institutional Rotation
The timing of bitcoin’s rally coincides with a burst of pro-crypto signals from Washington. President Donald Trump met with crypto executives earlier this week and publicly backed passage of the long-awaited Clarity Act, legislation designed to delineate regulatory jurisdiction between the SEC and CFTC over digital assets.
That endorsement shifted the needle. A Senate vote on the measure is now scheduled for September, removing one of the structural uncertainties that had weighed on institutional adoption.
The same day Trump’s comments hit markets, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the department would at least double its long-dated bond buyback program—a move that buoyed non-yielding assets across the board, including bitcoin and gold.
The $80K Question
Jiang said the next technical resistance for bitcoin could land around $80,000. Though he acknowledged small pullbacks remain possible, he framed the broader momentum as fundamentally sound rather than speculative.
The $3.8 billion asset manager pointed to expanding use cases as ballast for higher prices: stablecoin adoption, prediction markets, perpetual futures trading, and convergence with artificial intelligence development. Those factors, combined with regulatory clarity on the horizon, paint a bullish picture.
“It’s really hard not to be bullish,” Jiang said.
Bitcoin had languished below $65,000 through most of June and July, making this week’s rebound particularly significant for momentum traders and trend-followers who track institutional positioning shifts.