Bitcoin: Harvard Buys $400M in Spot ETFs as Whale Dumps $12.9M Amid Bearish Derivatives Sentiment
The BTC market is currently experiencing a complex interplay of institutional bullish sentiment and short-term bearish derivatives positioning, alongside a significant whale profit-taking event. While major institutions like Harvard and CaixaBank are increasing their exposure to BTC , and JPMorgan predicts a price bottom, the derivatives market shows strong bearish sentiment with deeply negative funding rates. This divergence, coupled with thin liquidity post-October crash, suggests potential for sharp price swings, even as a large holder exits a highly profitable long-term position.
Institutional Adoption and Bullish Outlook
Recent news highlights a strong and growing institutional confidence in bitcoin BTC. Harvard University has significantly increased its investment in bitcoin BTC spot ETFs, now owning over $400M of blackrock. BlackRock 's IBIT. This move is further reinforced by Emory University expanding its bitcoin BTC ETF holdings and CaixaBank introducing
bitcoin. BTC -focused products in Europe, signaling increasing mainstream financial integration. Adding to this bullish narrative, Forbes reported JPMorgan's prediction of a
bitcoin. BTC price bottom and a potential challenge to gold by 2026, which could attract further institutional capital.
Derivatives Market Bearishness and Options Volatility
Despite the positive institutional news, the derivatives market for bitcoin BTC shows a contrasting bearish sentiment. The funding rate for bitcoin. BTC-PERPETUAL on deribit. Deribit is significantly negative at -0.023048, indicating that perpetual contract traders are heavily shorting bitcoin BTC , anticipating a price decline. Concurrently, bitcoin BTC options on deribit Deribit show mixed signals: a positive outlier in implied volatility (IV) for options expiring on 2026-09-25 suggests anticipation of significant long-term price movements, while negative outliers for options expiring on 2025-11-16, 2026-03-27, and 2026-06-26 point to expectations of decreased price movements in the short to medium term.
Whale Profit-Taking and Market Liquidity Concerns
A notable on-chain event involved a whale, bc1q23...fp5qye , transferring 135.51 bitcoin BTC , valued at approximately $12.95M, to a Hyperunit Deposit address. This marks the completion of a phased profit-taking strategy for this address, which accumulated bitcoin BTC in late 2.02K at an average price of around $42.56K and realized over 121% profit. This significant outflow suggests a large holder is exiting their position, potentially adding selling pressure. Furthermore, CoinDesk reports thin crypto liquidity following the October crash, which could exacerbate price swings, making the market vulnerable to even moderate trading activity.