Why this ‘extremely bullish’ exec believes crypto’s next bull cycle has started already

• One River CEO Eric Peters believes the next crypto bull run will be very powerful and driven by institutional adoption
• Regulatory uncertainty stopping institutional entry, he added

Eric Peters, CEO of One River Digital Asset Management, believes the next crypto bull run will be very powerful as it will be driven by institutional adoption. In fact, the exec believes that a bull run might have begun already, despite prevailing downsides.

On a recent edition of the Bankless podcast, the exec claimed that crypto-winter has already passed, comparing last year’s debacle to the Wall Street crash of 1929.

Peters believes major institutions will participate in the next cycle. In fact, he is “extremely bullish” for the medium to long term. Additionally, he suggested that the bull run has already begun, citing the market’s appreciation since the beginning of the year.

Bitcoin finished 2022 with a value of around $16,500. At the time of writing, it was trading at around $22,400 (A surge of 35%). It even peaked to $25,000 in February, a value last seen in June last year.

Peters also touched upon the FTX episode. In doing so, he credited his firm’s conservative approach and shared the reasons behind them not falling for FTX’s hype.

According to Peters, what stops institutions from diving into the crypto-ecosystem is the regulatory uncertainty. As of now, two national regulatory bodies, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), are engaged in a battle for control over crypto-assets. Currently, there is a lot of confusion as to whether Bitcoin, Ethereum are securities or commodities.

Once the U.S., Europe, and Canada impose appropriate rules and regulations, institutional capital should flow into the industry, he concluded.

Peters also suggested that the collapse of the cryptocurrency market in 2022 taught people some critical trading lessons. He advised prospective investors to join the bandwagon, only if they are prepared for volatility and different cycles.

A lowdown on institutional investments

Towards the end of last year, S&P Global Market Intelligence published a report, one that shed light on institutional investment in cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi).

As of 16 December, institutional investors, private equity, and venture capital investments in cryptocurrency and DeFi totalled $917.8 million since the beginning of Q4 2022. The quarterly total was the lowest over the last two years. This was the same period during which FTX collapsed.

Source: S&P Global

Private equity, venture capital, and institutional investors increased their investments in cryptocurrency and DeFi nearly fivefold in 2021, totaling $13.65 billion. This trend continued into the first quarter of 2022, when institutional investment in cryptocurrency and DeFi reached a peak of $5.07 billion, before plummeting precipitously.

The second-quarter total of $2.94 billion in investments saw a decline of nearly 42% from the previous three-month period. During this phase, the Terra ecosystem collapsed too.