Having suffered a brutal year so far, Bitcoin prices have been rebounding over the past month with mum and dad investors pouring money into cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin prices gained almost 20% in July, to almost $34,000 from below $28,000. Even so, the largest cryptocurrency has tumbled by two-thirds from November 2021’s all-time high.
Fueling Bitcoin’s recent rally is the token’s correlation to stocks—especially tech stocks—which have surged amid an easing of investor worries over interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. The tech stock-laden Nasdaq surged 12% to notch its best July performance on record and the biggest one-month gain since April 2020.
Yet correlations aside, there have to be investors pouring money into digital assets in order for Bitcoin prices to go up. And it has been retail traders—particularly smaller ones based in the U.S.—that drove strong demand for Bitcoin in July, and continue to push prices higher in August, according to a number of market indicators.
“Retail are buying Bitcoin at the fastest rate in history,” Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at digital asset broker GlobalBlock, wrote in a late July note.
One sign that U.S. investors are particularly crypto-hungry is the Coinbase Premium Gap, which measures the difference between Bitcoin prices quoted on Coinbase Global (ticker: COIN) and those on Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. Since Coinbase is mostly popular in the U.S., the gap—tracked by data firm CryptoQuant—can be read as an indicator of how crypto demand among American investors stacks up relative to those in the rest of the world.
As recently as July 12, there was a $35 per Bitcoin discount on Coinbase compared to Binance, but as the month wore on the discount turned into a premium for the first time in months. By July 31, investors on U.S.-based Coinbase were paying a $20 per Bitcoin premium to scoop up the token, the highest premium since the crypto was changing hands around $57,000.
Other evidence supports the notion that it is primarily smaller traders who have swung in to buy Bitcoin while it has been trading at its lowest point since 2020. The total supply of Bitcoin in the largest 1% of accounts decreased to 17.32 million from 17.34 million across the month of July, according to crypto market intelligence firm Messari. By contrast, the supply of Bitcoin in accounts with more than $14,000 increased from 18.2 million to 18.4 million in July.
“The 90-day change in Bitcoin addresses with less than 1 coin (typically retail) is at record highs. The last time it was close to this high was in 2018 when Bitcoin peaked at around US$20,000,” noted Sotiriou from GlobalBlock. “The fact that a similar rate of accumulation is happening now after a 70% drop demonstrates conviction from retail holders in Bitcoin’s long-term value.”
The same trend is mirrored in the crypto derivatives market, which accounts for two-thirds of exchange-traded digital asset volumes, according to CryptoCompare. In the U.S., Bitcoin futures are particularly popular among institutional investors, because these products are traded on the CME and regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The CME offers two types of Bitcoin futures: A standard contract which is valued at 5 Bitcoin, or more than $165,000 at current prices; and a micro contract valued at 10% of 1 Bitcoin, or about $3,300. The former contract is more popular with institutional investors, while the latter is geared more towards a retail crowd.
The open interest of standard CME Bitcoin futures—which refers to the total number of outstanding contracts—rose from just 13,466 at the beginning of July to 13,480, while the open interest among micro Bitcoin futures jumped from 15,998 to 24,960.
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.
The bank posted unaudited cash earnings for the quarter of A$1.7 billion, down 2% on the average of its prior two quarters
National Australia Bank said that higher credit impairments against business loans contributed to a small fall in its unaudited December quarter cash earnings.
NAB , which is Australia’s second-largest bank by market capitalization, on Wednesday posted unaudited cash earnings for its fiscal first quarter of 1.74 billion Australian dollars, equivalent to about US$1.11 billion.
That was down 2% on the average of its prior two fiscal quarters. NAB did not give a year-earlier comparison.
The lender said that revenue grew by 3% compared with the average of its prior two fiscal quarters. Underlying profit growth of 4% over the same period was offset by higher credit impairment charges and income tax expenses, it added.
NAB, which posted an unaudited quarterly statutory profit of A$1.70 billion, said the A$267 million credit impairment charge included A$152 million of individually assessed charges. Those were mainly against Australian businesses and unsecured retail portfolios, it said.
The individual charges were up by 54% compared with a year earlier. NAB said that it had not altered its economic assumptions and scenario weightings.
“The economic outlook is improving but cost of living and interest rate challenges persisted,” Chief Executive Andrew Irvine said. “While most customers are proving resilient, we have maintained prudent balance sheet settings.”
NAB said it had seen a small decline in net interest margin due to funding costs, lending competition and deposits, partially offset by the benefit of higher interest rates.
On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia cut the country’s cash rate for the first time since 2020 but warned against expecting subsequent near-term cuts.
NAB is still targeting full fiscal-year productivity savings of more than A$400 million, and for operating expenses to grow by less than 4.5%, Irvine said.
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.