Given 'institutional' investors who are more prone to hold through dips and ignore the paper loss; is it actually possible for BTC to drop to sub $5k ever again now?
No. Unless this bull run massively diverges from all past cycles, the maximum downside is ~$24K and I wouldn't call that likely. It's the extreme.
There was an incredible amount of volume exchanged on the wick to $30K, so it's possible the low is already in too.
It's fun to dream about levels we could have bought at, but $5K is long gone. Forever. So is $10K. $20K is out of reach too I'm pretty sure. Give up your pipe dreams and buy the dip.
What was fundamentally different about that period of time to what it is now that would stop us returning to that price point? I'd appreciate any reliable information sources to back up any comments?
Look at 2013 and 2017 for an idea of what happens when BTC breaks a previous ATH.