Retail Bitcoin (BTC) Buying Up Despite Institutional Dump, Report Suggests

The number of wallet addresses with small Bitcoin (BTC) holdings has increased significantly since the crash of March 12, 2020 — ‘Black Thursday,’ when the price of BTC fell to $3,800.

Retail Traders Bought the Dip During the Last Bitcoin Crash

According to Coin Metric’s “State of the Network” report published on Tuesday (April 6, 2020), the mid-March Bitcoin price crash triggered retail investors to “buy the dip.” Data from the report shows a noticeable increase in the number of BTC wallet addresses holding small Bitcoin amounts — a usual indicator of retail buying.

Over the last 90 days, the number of addresses holding between 0.021 BTC and 0.21 BTC has increased by about 6 percent. During the same period, the number of wallets holding between 0.21 BTC and 2.1 BTC has gone up by about 4 percent.

According to the report, the bulk of this surge began around March 12 when the price of Bitcoin dropped by about 50 percent, bottoming out at $3,800. The date coincided with a massive selloff in the broader financial market with safe havens like gold not being spared as panicked investors sought to liquidate assets for cash.

While these small Bitcoin holdings could indicate new retail buying, the possibility exists that some whale wallets are trying to spread out their BTC hoard. However, data from Bitwise shows about $5 billion in deposits to crypto exchanges.

In late March Coinbase also published a report stating that Bitcoin buying on its platform surged six-fold during the panic period. According to Coinbase figures, retail traders deposited over $1.3 billion while trading activity increased by more than 350 percent.

Fear Ebbing Away

While the drop to $3,800 did cause send shockwaves across the industry, the Coin Metrics report argues that sentiment is beginning to shift from panic to a sense that the downward price action occasioned by the massive sell-offs was part of broader market dislocation.

Bitcoin has almost gained 90 percent since the March 12 price drop but has so far been rejected at the $7,800 resistance level. Like gold, Bitcoin’s price action is showing significant improvement after the forced sell-offs.

As previously reported by BTCManager, Bitcoin is still positively correlated with the stock market, having experienced the same swift plunge and recovery period in mid-March. However, the expectation among proponents is that the top-ranked crypto will soon chart a course that bears no correlation with the mainstream market arena.