Fidelity Investments, which began a custody service to store Bitcoin earlier this year, plans to buy and sell it for institutional customers within a few weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“Fidelity alone doesn’t move the entire needle, but Fidelity with E*Trade and Ameritrade and Robin Hood and a whole host,” said Chu, whose firm is a blockchain investment and advisory company. “You’re seeing a critical mass of these types of asset managers and brokers providing retail exposure and retail access to crypto.”

Some investors who expect Bitcoin to break above $6,000 see it quickly finding a new resistance level. The token will likely find fresh headwinds in the $6,000-$6,500 range, said Charlie Morris, a fund manager and founder of cryptocurrency price discovery site ByteTree.com in London.

“It would be unsurprising if that former support became resistance -- something that is quite normal in markets,” Morris said.

Eoin Treacy's view

- Cryptocurrencies started off as a purely retail investment. The anticipation of institutional involvement contributed to the mania in 2017 but the introduction of futures was an anti-climax. In fact many of the biggest holders used the futures to hedge their long exposure and contributed to the 1987 style crash. However, even though there were some hedge funds active in the space the majority of institutional investors were precluded from participating because of custody issues.

With companies like Fidelity, JPMorgan and E-Trade becoming active in the market, there is increasing support for institutional participation in the market. One of the market’s most attractive qualities is how uncorrelated it is with other assets. That alone is likely to spur demand from systematic funds.  

Bitcoin completed a four-month base in April, formed a first step above until early May and broke out on Friday. A sustained move below $5000 would now be required to question medium-term scope for continued upside.