(May 21): Cryptocurrency investors argue that institutional buying is one more reason to be bullish. After Wednesday’s tumble, that’s becoming more and more implausible.

The problem is that mutual funds, insurers and pension funds are often seeking a particular level of volatility — or really, lack thereof — for their investments. If you have a pile of corporate cash, is it going to be OK to put some of it into an asset that can rise or fall 30% in a single day as Bitcoin did this week? Tesla Inc and MicroStrategy Inc have bought into Bitcoin, but few have followed them, even after Tesla’s US$1.5 billion buy-in ignited a debate about corporate crypto purchases.