Retail investors are keeping up with institutional investors in terms of bitcoin purchases

Small and retail investors are keeping up with institutional investors in terms of bitcoin purchases. They have bought more than 187,000 VTCs since the beginning of the year.

Bitcoin flows have become balanced
Data from a study by JPMorgan Chase & Co shows that small and retail investors have bought as much bitcoin as large institutional investors.

“Retail investors have already bought more than 187,000 bitcoins this quarter, up from about 205,000 last quarter. Companies and institutions bought about 173,000 bitcoins during that time period,” Bloomberg writes.

While such statistics cannot fully prove the full acceptance of the cryptocurrency by users, they do show that bitcoin investment flows are becoming more balanced. Bitcoin’s rise has been influenced by both the activity of institutional investors, who bought up bitcoin en masse late last year, and the community on Reddit, as well as small investors who bought VTC for the $1400 stimulus payment.

“For many retail traders, cryptocurrencies were a major source of income during the pandemic. Despite the fall in the stock market, bitcoin has maintained a surprisingly strong bullish trend. Retail traders have revived, thanks to the recent excitement over the rise in the NFT token market and as stimulus checks hit their bank accounts,” said Ed Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp.

The rise in bitcoin’s value has led more retail investors to try to invest in cryptocurrencies, so the Fear and Greed Index often remains in the green.

Fear and Greed Index Score
Bitcoin is not about to end its bullish trend
Despite the correction, bitcoin has no plans yet to end the bullish trend that began back in the third quarter of 2020. This means that the price of the cryptocurrency will continue to increase as the interest of institutional and retail investors grows and will reach the figure of $100,000 apiece already by 2022.

William Quigley, Magnetic’s managing director, said in an interview with CNN Business that last year’s halving in the bitcoin network was the key driver behind BTC’s current rally. In his opinion, history shows that bitcoin could go up 300% to 500% in the next 12 to 18 months.

This could attract even more retail investors to the cryptocurrency market. As a reminder, bitcoin skyrocketed in price in September 2020. The CEO of the popular digital asset exchange Binance, Changpen Zhao, pointed out that bitcoin could realize a positive movement on the back of another issuance of $1200 worth of stimulus checks to Americans.

According to Forbes, many U.S. citizens chose to spend the first payments on bitcoins. The explanation for this choice was people’s attempt to preserve assets at a time of financial market instability amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many Americans were also planning to spend their next payout on buying bitcoins. According to Changpen Zhao, the support of BTC by U.S. citizens who received checks had a positive effect on the digital asset market.