Retail investors appear to be panic buying bitcoin (BTC), new data shows, but all may not be as it seems.
In a Tweet from April 4, William Clemente, Principal Analyst at Blockware, revealed a huge spike in BTC supply held by small investors.
2022 retail FOMO spike is ‘an outlier’
Typically referred to as “retail”, entities with 1 BTC or less are considered primary consumers rather than corporate or institutional investors.
According to figures from on-chain analytics company Glassnode, these smaller players have dramatically increased their share of the global BTC supply in 2022.
Traditionally, Clemente warned, these types of events have coincided with macro price caps, but given the recent behavior of the BTC/USD pair, this time it seems different from the others.
“This is a really interesting chart. Retail investors (holding 0-1 BTC) are currently buying at the second highest rate in Bitcoin history,” he commented.
“If you look at retail holdings, most of the spikes have coincided with macro tops, but on several occasions they have bought strategically. This peak is an outlier.”
All segments of the retail brigade, from 1 BTC to the smallest tranche of 0.001 BTC, have been increasing their market share over time, but since mid-February there has been a dramatic increaseas shown by Glassnode.
Now, entities holding between 0.1 BTC and 1 BTC control a total of nearly 800,500 BTC.
“Either we are doomed or retail has chosen to use bitcoin as a savings account and opt out of fiat. My optimistic side hopes it’s the latter,” Clemente added.
As the price of bitcoin has climbed towards $50,000 and out of its 2022 trading range, the amount of profitable supply in the hands of short-term holders -those that have been on the market for 155 days or less- has increased.
Short-term holders turning profits on their investment have also accompanied price highs in previous years, as data from Glassnode shows.
Google searches for bitcoin hit a new low
While attention has been focused on investor habits at what is a significant level of on-chain volume near $50,000, general public attention on bitcoin remains remarkably scant.
Google Trends data covering “Bitcoin” search interest worldwide shows less engagement than at any time since before last November’s all-time highs.
Not only that, but the trend is still downward, according to Google, and bitcoin could hit its lowest search volume in years if this trend continues.
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