There are several differences with this rally compared to 2017 ....

There are several differences with this rally compared to 2017 . They include the presence of institutions as opposed to almost solely retail buyers last time . These institutions are choosing to limit the range of coins they buy in some cases only BTC .. Grayscales 1.4 billion usd fund only holds BTC in its closed end fund.

• GBTC’s assets under management (AUM), which in this case is just the value of all the bitcoins held in the fund, reached a 10-month high of $1.42 billion
• By the end of April, Grayscale held 225,638 bitcoins or just under 1.3% of bitcoin’s total circulating supply
• Bitcoin inflows, or the amount of bitcoin added to GBTC’s holdings, have reached an all-time high in April signaling an increase in institutional demand
• The GBTC premium is currently nearly 40% and has increased consistently since December, which shows a shift of the sentiment in the market

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/2019/05/13/institutional-demand-for-bitcoin-appears-to-be-increasing/

https://www.coindesk.com/22-of-institutional-investors-have-some-digital-asset-exposure-fidelity

Aimed to gain an understanding of how institutions, financial advisors and investors perceive digital assets generally and as part of an investment portfolio, the survey also found that over half (57 percent) prefer to invest in digital assets directly, while 72 percent favor investment products that hold digital assets. Fifty-seven percent said they’d prefer to buy investment products that hold digital asset firms.

For the research, the company said it polled over 400 U.S. institutional investors, including pensions, family offices, crypto and traditional

“We’ve seen a maturation of interest in digital assets from early adopters, like crypto hedge funds, to traditional institutional investors like family offices and endowments,” said Tom Jessop, president of Fidelity Digital AssetsSM, a provider of institutional custody and trading services for digital assets.

Jessop continued:

hedge funds and financial advisors, as well as endowments and foundations.