John D'Agostino, head of institutional division strategy at Coinbase, said that in April 2025, sovereign wealth funds and other institutions were amassing a large amount of bitcoin, while retail investors exited the market through ETFs and cash. In a recent interview, the Coinbase executive compared bitcoin to gold and said that many institutional investors buy bitcoin as a hedge against monetary inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty. "Bitcoin trades based on its core characteristics, which are similar to gold - scarcity, immutability and portability of non-sovereign assets," the executive said. "So it trades exactly the way those who believe in Bitcoin want it to trade."