BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robert Mitchnick, said this week that bitcoin sentiment has turned in a noticeable but subtle way over the past month. His core observation is decoupling. Earlier in the year, when AI-linked equities were roaring and bitcoin was flat to down, separation hurt the asset. In July, when AI names sold off hard, bitcoin outperformed, which he called a healthier expression of the diversifier thesis.

Price context remains rough. Bitcoin is still deeply lower on the year and far below last year’s levels, recently trading in a wide $60,000 to $65,000 band. Mitchnick’s point is not a victory lap. It is about who is still buying. He described the ETF base as fundamental, long-term, buy-and-hold capital that has already lived through multiple boom-and-bust cycles.

Flow data backs the patience claim more than the price chart does. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs just posted their strongest inflow week since mid-April, about $853.5 million across a five-session streak, with BlackRock’s IBIT taking the large majority. Some market voices also tied part of the bid to self-custody scares after a major cold-storage incident, though that link remains correlation talk until cleaner wallet-level evidence appears.

Watch whether inflows continue if equities stabilize, and whether IBIT’s share of creations stays this concentrated when volatility returns.