Coinbase-Glassnode Survey Reveals: Bitcoin’s Future Looks ’Cautiously Optimistic’
Bitcoin bulls find fresh validation as institutional heavyweights signal measured confidence.
Market Sentiment Shifts
The latest collaborative research from crypto exchange giant Coinbase and blockchain analytics firm Glassnode paints a picture of tempered optimism among market participants. Institutional players maintain strategic positions while retail investors show renewed interest.
Survey Insights Unpacked
Professional traders display disciplined accumulation patterns—no reckless FOMO here. Long-term holders continue stacking sats despite recent volatility, proving diamond hands remain the market's backbone. Meanwhile, traditional finance institutions dip toes deeper into digital waters, though regulatory uncertainty keeps some whales on the sidelines.
Technical Foundations Strengthen
Network fundamentals tell their own bullish story. Hash rate hits new peaks while active addresses show sustained growth. The data suggests Bitcoin's infrastructure matures faster than skeptical regulators can draft warning memos.
Price Action Perspective
Current trading ranges indicate consolidation rather than distribution—a classic setup for the next leg up. Options markets price in moderate upside potential through year-end, though volatility expectations remain elevated. Because what's crypto without a little heart-pumping price action?
Institutional adoption creeps forward while retail sentiment warms—proving once again that Wall Street always arrives fashionably late to the financial revolution party.
Discrepancies between institutional and independent investors
As researchers surveyed 61 institutions and 63 independent investors, the results outline differences between their views of the market trends.
First off, while both categories are optimistic about Bitcoin, most institutional respondents believe that the current bull market stage is final. Independent investors rather think we are at the accumulation or the markup stage.
Another slight discrepancy is the view on large-cap altcoins. Where 38% of surveyed institutions believe altcoins will be the best performers in the next 3-6 months, only 29% of independent investors share this view.
Tom Lee (@fundstrat) says the DAT bubble might have already burst.
Over 200 DATs exist, but only Strategy and Bitmine account for 86% of trading volume. Most are trading below net asset value.
But he made a point that everyone's missing.
When the dollar decoupled from Gold in… pic.twitter.com/OfrIhkpY3i
Independents are more bullish on DATs with 14% vs. 8% of institutions. Notably, the share of institutional respondents who believe Bitcoin will be the worst-performing asset matches the share that believes DATs will be the best-performing (8% each), though the report does not indicate whether these were the same respondents.
15% of independent investors see bitcoin as the potentially worst-performing crypto asset for the remainder of 2025. 60% of institutions see small-cap altcoins as the worst asset, while only 42% of independent investors share the same stance.
Both categories cite a worsening macro environment as the biggest risk (institutions 38%, independents 29%). Geopolitical risks, hacks, and regulatory failures alarm both groups equally. Institutions appear less concerned than independents about liquidity drops and potential DAT failures.
Shared beliefs
Both groups generally believe that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval for single-name spot crypto ETFs will serve as a market driver. Independents are somewhat more optimistic about the positive impact of ETF approvals. Only 13–14% of respondents in both groups expect no impact from SEC approvals.
The survey indicates that both groups see reserve token burning and development spending as the two main priorities for crypto companies with sizable token treasuries.
Both independents and institutions called DATs “the most traded trade in crypto” right now (though technically, DAT stocks are not crypto). Independents see Bitcoin as equally “crowded,” while institutions view solana as second to DATs.
An Emerging Trends section
The second half of the report is the review of new market trends and the Bitcoin and ethereum trends study. This former section clearly shows that the summer of 2025 saw a drastic increase in DATs holding ETH and SOL. Before, Bitcoin-holding companies were sole rulers.
As for the market dominance, researchers outlined a 7% Bitcoin dominance decrease in Q3 (before hiking in September), while ETH dominance grew by 4%. The data on Bitcoin and ETH spot ETFs growth reflects the ETH ETFs’ horizontal growth from July to September 2025. Lately, its growth has been more shaky. Bitcoin ETF growth has been more gradual and steady.
What a difference a quarter makes.
In Q3, $ETH ETF inflows surpassed $BTC for the first time. pic.twitter.com/bhlIy6eQa9
In August, ETH ETF inflows outperformed Bitcoin ETF inflows by 10x, triggering debate about whether ETH has the potential to flip Bitcoin.
The 4-year cycle graphs for Bitcoin and Ether show that the current cycle (it started in 2022) is different. It lacks immense rallies and rather presents gradual buildups and declines. This cycle, Ether notably lacked the rallies it had in previous cycles. Instead, it had a long-term decline.
Bitcoin and Ethereum trends
As for Bitcoin trends, the latest months showed that even when Bitcoin price was reaching new highs, long-term investors preferred not to cash out. It marked a new trend. The sentiment gradually moved from belief to anxiety in the first half of 2025 and then flipped back in Q3.
The Ethereum trends section emphasizes that for the first time, Ether ETF inflows ($9.4 billion) exceeded BTC ETF inflows ($8 billion). According to the report, the liquid and illiquid ETH holdings correlation in Q3 indicates that many long-term ETH investors preferred to cash out as soon as ETH saw a rally. ETH and other L2 blockchains saw a record-breaking volume of transactions while the fees were the lowest in 2 years.
