UAE family offices, sovereign funds buying bitcoin: Coinbase

John D’Agostino, Coinbase’s head of institutional strategy, said family offices in the United Arab Emirates and several sovereign wealth funds have been buying bitcoin after its fall to roughly $60,000. He described those purchases as additions to long-term positions.

D’Agostino said institutions that accumulated bitcoin at $100,000 or $125,000 showed greater interest at the lower level. He reported these observations from a recent trip to the Middle East. “The family offices and the government and sovereign funds that are putting the effort into buying this asset class are not unhappy at being able to buy it at a discount,” he added.

Bitcoin slid to a 2026 low near $59,100 last week and the broader crypto market’s total capitalization fell below $2.1 trillion. Market sentiment measures reached extreme fear readings. Some exchange-traded fund holders withdrew funds, while D’Agostino noted ETF ownership and market infrastructure have remained in place and that a base of long-term holders has not exited.

He drew a distinction between short-term leveraged traders who were forced out during liquidation cascades and patient institutional capital that accumulates when prices fall.

Skeptics pointed out that a Coinbase executive has a commercial interest in highlighting institutional demand and that anecdotal reports of sovereign buying are difficult to verify in real time. Analysts will monitor on-chain transaction data and ETF flows in coming weeks to assess whether reported buying can absorb selling from liquidations and ETF redemptions.

There are confirmed signs of institutional interest beyond anecdotes: Luxembourg’s sovereign fund recently bought shares in bitcoin exchange-traded products, making it one of the first state funds in the Eurozone to do so. Observers also note bitcoin has been trading near the network’s average production cost, a level that leaves some miners close to break-even and could affect selling pressure.

Analysts say on-chain flows and ETF data will provide the clearest evidence of whether long-term institutional buyers are absorbing the current discount.