Bitcoin Approaches $100K; Retail Investors Stay Steady

Bitcoin is trading at $99,340.23 and approaching $100,000 as retail investors maintain market dominance.

What’s more interesting about this rally is the dominance of retail investors, who currently account for 88.07% of all Bitcoin (BTC) in circulation, according to The Block. Contrary to recent claims that institutional investors have surpassed retail investors in BTC ownership, the asset is still held by retail investors, underlining their strong position in the market. This bastion of the grassroots contrasts with the much smaller stakes held by whales at 1.26% and institutional investors at 10.68%.

A heat map showing Bitcoin’s whales, investors and retail investors. | Source: crypto.news

Adding momentum to BTC, the historic launch of BlackRock’s BTC ETF options saw a notional value of $1.9 billion traded on the first day. This is important news because it signals growing institutional interest in BTC, but also lowers the barriers to entry for ordinary investors. But Jeff Park, Head of Alpha Strategies at Bitwise Invest, says there is still some way to go in his observations on X about the ETF’s potential to reshape access to BTC.

1/ Just as we expected, the market started with a nice “volatility smile” that quickly built up at 945 in the morning and throughout the rest of the day. In fact, the smile grew wider throughout the day, ending with EoD with higher wings. pic.twitter.com/BHI09pORS4

— Jeff Park (@dgt10011) 20 November 2024
Jeff Park commented on BTC ETF Bitcoin Distribution:

How BTC ownership is distributed supports the general trend of asset availability in the market. Companies like Coinbase hold a significant amount of BTC, holding more than 2.25 million BTC. However, most of them are kept for their customers. Satoshi Nakamoto’s wallet containing 96.8452 BTC remained untouched as he played a role in the creation of the Genesis block.

Overall, funds and ETFs account for 1.09 million BTC, or about 5.2%, while governments such as the US and China hold around 2.5% in total.

Although BTC has witnessed price increases, the market is far from stable and often fluctuates wildly. For example, on November 21, the price of BTC dropped to $95,756.24 and the trading volume reached $98.40 billion. This volatility reflects the vital role retail investors play during price increases, even as institutional investors become more active in the market.

Some claim that BTC is becoming more centralized, but the data does not support this claim. Financial products like ETFs are attractive to institutions but also make BTC more accessible to individual investors. BTC continues to align with Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of a decentralized and democratized financial system. As BTC approaches the $100,000 threshold, on and off conversations about BTC ownership are still important.