Bitcoin may be breaking records again, but this time it’s not because of retail frenzy. Search trends, social media chatter, and small-investor activity are all far quieter than they were in 2017 or 2021. The people driving this move aren’t hobby traders—they’re the biggest institutions and the wealthiest investors on the planet.

Look at BlackRock. Larry Fink once dismissed Bitcoin as an “index of money laundering.” Now he’s calling it “digital gold,” and his firm’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has become the fastest-growing ETF in history. 

It’s pulled in nearly $90 billion, representing more than 3% of all the Bitcoin that will ever exist. Those billions aren’t coming from TikTok influencers—they’re coming from pensions, hedge funds, and the kind of family offices that have multi-generational plans for capital preservation and growth.

Even Harvard University has made the leap. Back in 2018, its star economist Kenneth Rogoff said Bitcoin was more likely to hit $100 than $100,000. Today, Harvard’s endowment owns more of BlackRock’s IBIT than it does Apple stock in its U.S. equity portfolio. That’s not just a change of heart—it’s a complete reversal in worldview.

And of course, there’s Michael Saylor, whose MicroStrategy now holds close to 3% of the total future Bitcoin supply, turning a business software company into a corporate Bitcoin vault.

This is institutional FOMO. The biggest asset manager on Earth is selling it, elite universities are holding it, corporate treasuries are betting their future on it, and family offices are adding it to the same portfolios that hold their blue-chip stocks and trophy real estate.

But institutions aren’t the only ones making this move. There’s another wave—quieter but just as significant—coming from the ultra-high-net-worth crowd. The centimillionaires. 

The people who can wire $10 million into a position without blinking. I’ve always said: never take financial advice from someone with less money than you. Well, Gary Cardone has a lot more than me—and he’s all in on Bitcoin.

Gary is part of what they call “smart money.” He’s in the same camp as the other ultra-wealthy who aren’t just dabbling in crypto—they’re making conviction bets. 

And when you see people with that kind of capital and that kind of access all moving in the same direction, it’s worth listening to why. That’s exactly why I sat down with him—to hear, straight from someone in that rarefied circle, why Bitcoin has gone from a curiosity to a core holding.