Bitcoin hits $64,000: retail investors asleep while institutions celebrate
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Bitcoin hits $64,000: retail investors asleep while institutions celebrate
During Bitcoin's rise to over $60,000, retail investor participation remained low.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Mary Liu, Bitpush News
Bitcoin surged sharply earlier on Wednesday, breaking above the $60,000 mark for the first time since November 2021. It quickly reached a high of $64,037 before plunging 7% within hours, dropping as low as $59,400. Major tokens including Solana's SOL, Chainlink's LINK, and Avalanche's AVAX also declined by nearly 3%-5% over the past hour.
According to CoinGlass data, the market volatility triggered over $600 million in liquidations across the crypto market. In the past 24 hours, 178,095 traders were liquidated, totaling $693.29 million in losses.
Analysts noted that retail investor participation remained relatively low during this rally.
Coinbase’s app temporarily crashed due to overwhelming traffic, with some users reporting their account balances showing zero. The company’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, explained on social media: "We modeled and load-tested for about a tenfold surge in traffic, but actual usage exceeded even that."
Despite the pullback, Bitcoin is still up over 7% this week and 44% for the month. Analysts attribute this surge to several favorable factors: growing demand for Bitcoin ETFs, anticipation surrounding the upcoming Bitcoin halving cycle, and supportive macroeconomic conditions.
Trading in U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs continues at a feverish pace.
According to Bloomberg data, spot Bitcoin ETF trading volume hit $7.6 billion by the close of U.S. markets on Wednesday, surpassing the previous record of $4.7 billion set on January 11—the first day of trading.
BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) saw approximately $3.3 billion in volume. Fidelity’s FBTC recorded around $1.4 billion, while Grayscale’s GBTC traded $1.8 billion.
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, said IBIT “did more volume today than it did in the prior two weeks combined—this officially becomes a mania.”
Jim Bianco, president and macro strategist at Bianco Research, noted that BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF has seen more individual trading transactions than SPY, the top S&P 500 ETF, or QQQ, which tracks the Nasdaq.
Data from BitMEX Research shows that since their January launch, 10 newly listed spot ETFs have attracted over $6.7 billion in net inflows. Spot ETF accumulation accelerated this week, bringing in over $1 billion in just two days. On Tuesday alone, BlackRock’s IBIT attracted $520 million in new capital.
Retail Sleeping, Institutions Rejoicing?
IntoTheBlock analysts say on-chain data and web search trends indicate limited retail investor participation during Bitcoin’s rise above $60,000.
Google searches for Bitcoin and app download volumes remain moderate. Notably, Coinbase’s app rose to the No. 1 most-downloaded app in Apple’s U.S. App Store in late October 2021—right amid peak bullish sentiment.
Analysts added that transaction volume on the Bitcoin blockchain has been rising, but remains far below levels seen during the 2021 market peak.
Likewise, the number of new Bitcoin addresses has stabilized and cooled off from its peak at the end of last year—partly due to the Ordinals frenzy. The Ordinals protocol allows users to inscribe non-fungible tokens (NFTs) onto Bitcoin, whose surging popularity last year congested the network and drove up transaction fees.
"Despite incredible price action, current data suggests retail investors are calm," IntoTheBlock analysts said in an X post on Wednesday. "This indicates institutional investors may be leading this phase. ETFs are viewed as potential accumulation vehicles."
Stephane Ouellette, CEO of FRNT Financial, a digital asset-focused institutional platform, said: "This rebound appears primarily driven by BTC ETFs. Some estimates suggest fewer than 20% of financial advisors have received approval from their firms to offer this product to clients—a process that could take up to a year to complete."
CoinDesk today cited sources saying Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley is considering adding spot Bitcoin ETFs to its brokerage platform.
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