[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee (이윤서)] Investment bank Bernstein reiterated its $150,000 year-end target price for bitcoin.

DeCrypt, a blockchain media outlet, reported on June 8 local time that Bernstein sees the recent bitcoin weakness and the exit of retail investors as a process of shifting to an institution-led market rather than a structural downturn.

Bitcoin is down about 27 percent so far in 2026. Retail investors have shifted their attention to artificial intelligence-related stocks, and inflows have also weakened.

Bernstein said the current lacklustre trading shows a different market structure from previous cycles. It said holdings are becoming more stable as purchases by institutions, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and corporate treasuries take a larger share than speculative retail demand.

Inflows into bitcoin have fallen sharply so far this year. Net inflows into spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and corporate treasury buyers total about $12 billion since the start of the year. That compares with $60 billion for all of 2025, a drop of 80 percent, while spot bitcoin ETFs also posted net outflows of $2.6 billion from total assets of $75 billion.

Bernstein did not view the trend only pessimistically. The analysis team said retail investors have flocked to AI-related stocks, making bitcoin look like a "boring asset" in this cycle. It added that bitcoin's maturation is not fully valued in the market, and argued that criticism of weak retail investor momentum is not necessarily a bad signal.

Corporate treasury demand is still continuing. Strategy, which shifted from a software company to a bitcoin treasury strategy company, raised $7.5 billion this year through its preferred stock product STRC and used the funds to buy about 100,000 BTC. Strategy's total bitcoin holdings have topped 845,000 BTC, with a valuation put at about $53.6 billion.

Across the market, the total cryptocurrency market capitalisation remains at about $2.25 trillion. It is still small compared with global stock and commodity markets. Some bitcoin mining companies have shifted their business focus to AI data centres due to worsening profitability, and some recorded stock-price gains as a result.

Even so, Bernstein did not change its long-term outlook for bitcoin. Bitcoin is trading around $63,000 and has fallen to about 50 percent below its peak in October last year, but the $150,000 year-end target remains, it said. The analysis team said bitcoin's long-term logic as a "store of value" has not been undermined. It said the market is likely to focus on whether institutional inflows resume, rather than on the return of retail investors, and whether ETF and corporate treasury demand can lead a price recovery in the second half.