Bitcoin retail sentiment still matters, says Swan Bitcoin CEO

Despite the growing institutional presence in crypto, retail sentiment is just as important as it was when Wall Street was largely on the sidelines, according to Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten.

“It still does. You have to remember it’s not like BlackRock owns the Bitcoin and Fidelity owns the Bitcoin. It’s a bunch of retail accounts mostly that actually buy that,” Klippsten said during an interview with Cointelegraph published to YouTube on Tuesday.

Cory Klippsten spoke to Cointelegraph at BitcoinVegas 2026. Source: Cointelegraph

“You know they’re buying it in a wrapper. But they still have to take real supply and custody it. And it comes out of the supply. So, you know, it’s still it is real demand in ETFs,” Klippsten said, adding:

“There are some paper products and futures and things like that that are weird and take a little while to kind of work through the system. There is something to the idea that there is more supply in certain ways. But at the end of the day, if you want real on-chain Bitcoin, the fact that you can get it is what makes Bitcoin unique.”

US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs have posted a combined $2.90 billion in net outflows since May 15, according to Farside data, while Bitcoin has slid approximately 9.5% over the same period. At the time of publication, Bitcoin is trading at $73,630, according to CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin is down 2.87% over the past 30 days. (CoinMarketCap)

Meanwhile, sentiment toward the crypto market has been volatile in 2026. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which measures overall crypto market sentiment, posted an “Extreme Fear” score of 23 on Friday, signaling that investors are taking a cautious approach to the crypto market.

Bitcoin price outlook for 2026: slim chances

Klippsten said his outlook on Bitcoin hitting a new all-time high in 2026 is now looking slim.

He said he thought there was around a 50% chance we’d see a new all-time high this year when Bitcoin was still trading around $95,000 earlier this year, but given it has declined around 23% since then, his odds have gone down.

“I thought there was probably like a 50% chance that we’d see a new all-time high this year. And I’d say, given that we’re still in the 70s and, you know, and that we went all the way down to 60, I’d probably handicap that down to like 20 or 25% chance that we get a new [high]” he said.