JPMorgan Says Retail and Institutional Bitcoin Flows Were Equal in Q1

According to a JPMorgan report, institutional and retail bitcoin flows balanced throughout the first quarter of 2021.

JPMorgan Analysis Details

Retail investors accumulated over 187,000 Bitcoins this quarter as a proxy using Square and Paypal data, compared to approximately 205,000 last quarter, strategists, including Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, in a report on Friday. Meanwhile, over the period – as gathered by Bitcoin futures, cash flows, and business announcements – institutions have acquired around 173.000 bitcoin – after purchasing almost 307.000 over the final period in 2020.

The investment bank, which monitors retail bitcoin flows through proxies Square and PayPal and institutional flows via CME Group’s bitcoin futures market, said that retail saw a major acceleration in the current quarter compared to the previous quarter whereas the institutional flow was flattish.

The bank clarified that, in other words, using bitcoin terms. In contrast, the bitcoin flow picture was driven by institutional investors during Q4 2020; the flow picture has been more evenly balanced between retail and institutional investors in the current quarter reflecting Q3 2020. 

The data shows that itBit’s regular volumes, the bank uses as a PayPal proxy, almost doubled from the fourth quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of 2021. In the meantime, Square-enabled Bitcoin payments have doubled. Its  CME Group indicator only marginally increased between 1,284 and 1,449.

Bitcoin Rally 2020 – 2021

A primary reason for the Bitcoin run-up by 2020, with banks and fund managers announcing plans, was cited as Wall Street’s embrace for cryptography. Retailers now take care of Reddit’s crazy refrigeration stock and news, including digital artwork archives – some now equipped with $1,400 stimulus controls.

Ed Moya, senior market analysis officer at Oanda Corp said that Bitcoin was a pandemic bread-and-butter exchange for several retail cryptocurrency traders. Meme volatility stock trading has burnt some, but Bitcoin has sustained an incredibly bullish trend that has won the majority. Retail traders have been revitalized by the recent NFT bust and when stimulus checks reach their bank accounts.

Bitcoin soared up over $60,000 this weekend for the first time since the $1.9 trillion bills of pandemic relief were signed in law by President Joe Biden, then fell down on the same weekend. In the past year, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has increased by approximately 990 percent.

According to Brian Vendig, President of MJP Wealth Advisors, these staggering gains could become self-fulfilling as people on the front line want to do so. He said that as institutions start to get into space, they demonstrate leadership in the marketplace and help validate something, and so each investor wants to take part.