Bitcoin has seen a lot of adoption recently as corporations adopt the leading cryptocurrency. But it’s not just the big guys, but retail is just as much into the trillion-dollar asset. Retail investors have purchased more than 187,000 BTC so far this quarter as compared to roughly 205,000 last quarter, based on PayPal and Square data, wrote JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists, including Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou. 

Retail investors are taking charge of the Bitcoin bull market this quarter.

The report further mentioned that institutions bought 173,000 BTC compared to 307,000 in the last quarter of 2020, based on Bitcoin futures, fund flows, and company announcements. Armed with stimulus checks, $1,200 last time, and $1,400 this time, retail is taking charge of the Bitcoin bull market this quarter. “For many retail cryptocurrency traders, Bitcoin was the bread-and-butter trade amid the ongoing global pandemic. Meme stock trading volatility burnt many, but Bitcoin has maintained an amazingly bullish trend that has made most winners,” said Ed Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda.

The number of new participants in the Bitcoin network is growing at an “unprecedented” rate.

Overall, the number of new participants in the Bitcoin network is growing at an “unprecedented” rate. “Over the past weeks, we have seen a large growth of new entities. This is a strong indication that new retail investors have been entering the space,” noted Glassnode as well. The longer-term bitcoin holders who keep the coin for over three years continue to accumulate the cryptocurrency, while newer ones who came in the last 6-12 months have been selling into the recent rally. Bitcoin has witnessed a massive winning rally this year, which was mainly driven by increased interest from major institutions like Tesla.