We knew this would happen eventually, and it looks like it is already beginning...

Retail investors are predominately what drove bitcoin to new all time highs back in 2017.

Sure there were a number of hedge funds and instutions that did their part to push prices to almost $20k, but a big part of the heavy lifting was done by retail.

They flooded in with their newly created Coinbase accounts and threw every dollar they could at bitcoin and the hottest altcoins/ICOs.

This pushed prices up well beyond where they probably "should have been". Though who knows what that level is really considering there are no earnings, cash flows, or dividends with these things.

Anyways, after that blow off top, retail go badly hurt as the price of bitcoin eventually went all the way down to about $4k over the ensuing months.

Many retail ended up buying high and selling low, getting burned pretty bad in the process.

This kind of mental turmoil will often cause people to never touch said investment again.

Up until just recently retail has largely stayed away from bitcoin.

However, there are a couple signs currently that retail is coming back...

The first sign that retail is coming back has to do with GBTC.

The Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust has always traded at a premium to its NAV, but that premium is now sitting at 6 month highs and showing no signs of stopping:

(Source: https://ycharts.com/companies/GBTC/discount_or_premium_to_nav)

It's currently trading with over a 30% premium, which is a big jump from the 7% premium it traded at just a few months ago.

Institutions love GBTC, but so does retail. My guess is that the spiking premium has to do with retail flooding in.

This line of thinking is also evidenced by the spike in google searches for "bitcoin".

Which is also something that tends to indicate retail involvement.

(Source: https://www.coindesk.com/google-searches-for-bitcoin-price-hit-18-month-high)

Google searches for "bitcoin" are at 18 month highs currently.

This time around we have institutions and retail buying up bitcoin at the same time, sounds like a pretty good recipe for higher bitcoin prices to me! :)

Stay informed my friends.

-Doc