Strategy, the Michael Saylor-led company that has made Bitcoin accumulation its core business, bought $76.6 million worth of crypto last week, lifting its total holdings to 762,099 BTC — roughly 3.5% of the entire Bitcoin supply.
Wall Street brokerage Bernstein used that move as a springboard to reaffirm one of the boldest price calls on the market: Bitcoin hitting $150,000 before the year is out.
Institutional Money Is Moving
Bernstein senior analyst Gautam Chhugani delivered the outlook in a note to clients Monday, saying BTC has found its price floor after months of decline.
The call, if correct, would mean the drop to around $60,000 in early February was the lowest point in the current downturn — and that everything from here points upward.
Bitcoin was trading past $71,000 at the time of the report, meaning the $150,000 target represents a more than 110% gain from current levels.
Chhugani pointed to two forces he believes will push the price there: growing inflows into BTC spot exchange-traded funds and rising corporate demand.
The numbers backing 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 net inflows since March began.
The market got a brief lift earlier in the week after reports that US President Donald Trump had ordered a five-day halt in strikes on Iran. Bitcoin climbed to $71,750 on Monday before easing back.
Corporate Buyers Keep Piling In
Beyond Strategy, institutional interest is broadening. Australia’s pension fund Hostplus announced plans to offer clients Bitcoin exposure through self-directed portfolios.
Morgan Stanley, one of the biggest names in global banking, has updated its SEC filing for a US Bitcoin spot ETF, a sign the product could be closer to launching than previously expected.
Bernstein described Strategy as a high-beta play on Bitcoin — meaning its stock tends to move sharply in the same direction as Bitcoin, only more so. Despite MSTR shares falling 50% from their all-time high, Chhugani set a price target of $450 for 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 laid out a scenario where Bitcoin drops as far as $41,500 by mid-October 2026 before any meaningful recovery begins.
Standard Chartered Bank has repeatedly warned that Bitcoin could revisit $50,000 first, citing weak economic conditions and limited demand. The bank also cut its own 2026 Bitcoin forecast from $150,000 to $100,000.
The split between analysts reflects how uncertain this market remains. Bitcoin has never matched the scale of correction seen in past bear markets if the February low holds — that would make this one of the shallower pullbacks from an all-time high in the asset’s history.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
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Christian Encila