Mike Alfred Says Retail Traders Are Missing Out On A 'Significant Bull Market'

Mike Alfred is a former tech CEO, founder of a value investment fund and a board member of several large companies. He has years of experience across several industries, allowing him to acquire an audience of nearly 150,000 followers on X.

Over the years, Alfred has used his platform to share his views on many subjects, but his strongest views are easily on cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin is his favorite token to rave about. 

In a post in late February, Alfred shared his view on the recent spike in Bitcoin's price, noting that the move seems to be the result of institutional buyers, a stark contrast to past price moves that were seemingly driven by retail traders.

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"We're at $56,800 Bitcoin and the retail crowd is eerily quiet. People must be too busy with their kids, day jobs and Instagrams. I didn't receive a single inbound text from a nocoiner friend this week so far. Search traffic is anemic. All the action is driven by corporates, sovereigns and financial institutions with a very long-term time horizon. The coast is clear and we're heading into a significant bull market."

Alfred believes that this move in Bitcoin's price is different from most of the past moves. Here, he sees the price as mostly driven by institutional buyers, which are setting the stage for a "significant bull market." These buyers are likely more willing to stomach risk and may not sell as quickly as a retail trader would in the event of a downturn.

Recent events also give Alfred's views some backing. A couple of weeks ago in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), MicroStrategy Inc., led by Chairman Michael Saylor, announced it purchased an additional 3,000 Bitcoins, bringing its total stash to nearly 200,000 tokens. 

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Alfred's post makes some sense. Apart from the approval of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Bitcoin has not been as prominently in the headlines as it has been in the past, such as the last bull market in 2020-2021. 

A report from Google corroborated Alfred's sentiment, showing that the search trend score is nearing all-time lows, a stark contrast to the last time Bitcoin was nearing all-time highs. At that time in 2021, the score reached the maximum of 100. 

However, not all signs point toward institutions leading the charge. A report from JPMorgan Chase & Co. showed that there is increased activity on retail trading platforms, such as Robinhood and Coinbase. Additionally, on-chain data shows that there is heightened volume from smaller wallets, which could point toward more activity from retail traders.  

The jury is still out on who is driving the recent Bitcoin run. Some evidence, such as low search volumes and key public institutional buyers, shows that large entities could be pushing the needle. On the other hand, increased activity from retail trading sites and smaller wallets could indicate that retail traders are driving the trend. With evidence on both sides, only time will tell. 

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