Bloomberg: Retail Investors Begin Returning to the Cryptocurrency Sector

CEX's report for the fourth quarter of last year indicates that retail investors are cautiously returning to the cryptocurrency field, although they have not dived in headfirst like they did during the previous bull market three years ago. Arca trader Kyle Doane said, "There are signs that retail investors are starting to re-enter the market, but it has not reached the level of the last bull market. Even stocks like COIN and crypto mining companies show greater volatility than many tokens." Retail traders are crucial to cryptocurrencies. During the last bull market, they accounted for the largest share of Coinbase's revenue and were also a major revenue driver for most other cryptocurrency exchanges.

Google Trends show that searches for "Bitcoin" surged when ETFs debuted in mid-January but then plummeted to bear market levels, indicating that retail investors have not fully committed yet. The download volume of top cryptocurrency trading apps used by retail traders is also significantly lower than during bullish periods. According to data from market intelligence company Sensor Tower, Binance's app downloads reached 10 million in the fourth quarter of last year, up from 9 million in Q3 and higher than 8.1 million in the final three months of 2022; whereas in Q2 2021, Binance had 25.8 million downloads. Additionally, Coinbase's app saw a 13% increase in downloads compared to Q3 last year but still declined year-on-year: its fourth-quarter download volume of 1.7 million was only a small fraction of its peak at 10.8 million downloads in Q2 2021.