PANews reported on October 23 that according to The Block, according to data from CryptoQuant, retail investor activity slowed down between June and late September, but has started to pick up since October. The agency pointed out in a report released on Tuesday: "In the past 30 days, retail demand has increased by about 13%, showing a similar trend to when we approached the previous historical high in March."
The report states that the increase in retail demand for Bitcoin is in tandem with the growth of institutional interest. While retail investors are returning to the market, institutional investors have been steadily increasing their investment in Bitcoin this year. This is in stark contrast to the first quarter of 2024, when market demand was mainly driven by large investors. The current dynamics of retail and institutional investor demand are similar to previous Bitcoin market cycles, and the recent increase in retail activity may foreshadow a similar pattern of optimism reappearing.
To gauge retail investor demand, CryptoQuant looks at several key metrics. One of them is tracking the total amount of bitcoin held by wallets that hold less than one bitcoin. This total has grown from 1.734 million bitcoins in mid-March to 1.752 million bitcoins at present, an increase of 18,000 bitcoins. Another metric is the volume of on-chain transactions with a value of less than $10,000, which reflects the activity of small investors and provides a reference to the market sentiment of non-institutional investors.
