Bitcoin (BTC) Sees Massive 277K New Retail HODLers, Why Sentiment Shifted

Bitcoin’s (BTC) rally has recently pushed the premier digital currency to a new all-time high (ATH) above $73,000, solidifying the thesis that the coin is in an active price discovery mode. An intriguing trend to this ongoing rally is the proliferation of retail HODLers, per a new data insight from crypto analytics platform Santiment.

Bitcoin retail boom

Per the Santiment data, over the past two weeks, small wallets with less than 0.1 BTC have continued increasing in number, with more than 277,000 added overall. Santiment shared data that shows that wallets with at least 1,000 BTC have dropped to 105 or less, representing a 4.9% slump over the past two weeks.

With the Bitcoin market sentiment currently at extreme greed, it is not uncommon to find traders exhibiting FOMO, Fear of Missing Out. The retail explosion has also contributed to the uptick in Bitcoin’s trading volume, which is now up by more than 10% at the time of writing to $63,131,961,279.

🐳🐠 Over the past 2 weeks, as #Bitcoin has repeatedly extended its now $72.7K #AllTimeHigh, small wallets with less than 0.1 $BTC have continued increasing in number (+277K more). Meanwhile, wallets with 1K+ $BTC have dropped (105 less). https://t.co/PwschnMmzH pic.twitter.com/KoLCEsvjo3

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) March 12, 2024

Additionally, wallets holding 0.1 BTC to 10 BTC also dropped by 0.8% over the trailing 14-day period. The Santiment data now pegged the addresses holding zero to 0.1 BTC at 48.04 million, with those holding over 1,000 BTC in 2053.

More retail investors to come

With the price of Bitcoin in active discovery mode, chances are that more retail holders will be onboarded in the long term. As the Bitcoin price hits new milestones, it might become too expensive to buy a whole coin, and those who need to gain exposure might have to grab a fraction of the coin.

The emergence of spot Bitcoin ETFs makes things even easier as investors can buy shares in an easy and regulatory-controlled environment. Overall, the Bitcoin price might be the ultimate trigger to drive new adoption across the board.

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