According to Alex Thorne, head of research at Galaxy Digital, Wall Street’s attitude toward Bitcoin has turned from euphoric to deep skepticism after last year’s long bullish trade. In an interview on What Happened to Bitcoin, Thorne said that this change has less to do with conspiracy theories or a single catalyst for poverty than with exhausted demand, heavy selling by long-term holders and a market that is now struggling to find a fresh narrative.
Thorne dismissed claims that companies like Jane Street are to blame for Bitcoin’s weakness, calling that line of thinking “Twitter is fighting back.” He argued that most of the anger reflected frustration with price action rather than evidence of deliberate suppression.
“What do we think would be their real incentive to lower the price?” Thorne said. “Bitcoin is a multi-trillion asset, whether it’s a trillion dollars. It’s hard to manage markets of scale in a particular direction because it’s a free market and it’s a big market.”
– bitcoin did not crash because of Jane Street
– distribution of whales was significant, inevitable, necessary, healthy
– negative wall in BTC is real but wrong
– the true value of bitcoin is real and correct
– you need to be robotmaxxing or you will always be in frame https://t.co/GUMAARf7Pl pic.twitter.com/QQhDy3RNrg— Alex Thorne (@nonintaxy) February 28, 2026
Why Wall Street Is Wrong About Bitcoin
His broader explanation was easier said than done. From the end of 2024 to the period between the US election and the US inauguration, he said, bitcoin’s length was “the most popular business in the world”. This changed when capital shifted elsewhere. AI-related stocks, semiconductor names, energy plays, quantum stocks and gold all grabbed attention, while Bitcoin’s momentum faltered.
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At the same time, Thorne said, long-term holders were constantly distributing coins in strength. He said the sell-off was structural rather than alarming. “That’s how distribution happens and that’s how you make money in business,” he said, arguing that older holders making profits is not a sign of failure, but part of Bitcoin’s maturity.
He went further and described the distribution of sharks as constructive for the network in the long run. “Technically you want to have more sales. You want to distribute it to people who will buy it at a higher price,” Thorne said. “The perceived price is higher, and that’s a good thing. It means people with a lot of money are willing to buy Bitcoin at really high prices. To me, that’s a real signal of acceptance.”
However, Thorne acknowledged that sentiment, particularly among professional investors, has soured. In his opinion, the failure of Bitcoin since September like “digital gold” has damaged the story that many distributors bought. Wall Street, he said, took the label too literally.
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“We didn’t mean it would trade with a high beta to GLD,” Thorne said. “Its characteristics are similar to gold. Its trading behavior has yet to match that. The delta between the two, if you believe it will eventually close, is alpha.”
This inconsistency contributed to a dovish institutional mood, just as broader macro fears worsened. Thorne said investors are concerned about AI from both directions: It may not justify huge capital or it may become so successful that it destroys jobs and destabilizes markets. If stocks turn around on the back of this uncertainty, he suggested, Bitcoin may struggle to remain insulated.
However, Thorne drew a line between short-term sentiment and long-term conviction. “We really need to focus on explaining its core purpose and use cases and value to the Bitcoin holder as the reason it’s going up,” he said. “Stop asking Jay Powell to buy your bags. It’s not sustainable because the reason it’s going up is because people deeply understand the savings technology that is Bitcoin.”
For Thorne, that’s the real story now: Wall Street may have turned negative, but the long-running battle is still whether more investors will see Bitcoin as a stable asset of value rather than a passing macro business.
At press time, BTC was trading at $66,109.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
