The price of Bitcoin is down nearly 20% so far in the first quarter of the year, reflecting… Slow market climate In 2026. The difficulties faced by the leading cryptocurrency have been largely highlighted by the growing apathy of different categories of investors. According to the latest on-chain data, the activity of the smallest group of Bitcoin investors has declined over the past few months.
Retail activity and demand for BTC falls to the lowest level in more than a year
In a March 21 post on Platform X, the analyst with the pseudonym Darkfost said open Bitcoin retail activity (which represents on-chain transactions of less than $10,000) has declined in recent months. According to market experts, this decline in activity also indicates deteriorating demand from retail investors.
Darkvost shared that retail activity and demand for Bitcoin appeared to be “relatively stable” for about a year before recently depleting. Data from CryptoQuant shows that average demand from retail Bitcoin investors, on a monthly basis, fell to -10%, the lowest level since January 2025.
Source: @Darkfost_Coc on X
Darkfost noted in their post:
Historically, hash demand tends to increase sharply when Bitcoin is performing well and then decrease just as quickly when Bitcoin corrects. We can clearly observe that retail demand tends to contract when bottoms are formed or during bear markets.
The cryptocurrency analyst also highlighted that retail investors have been largely absent – as expected – in this down cycle. Typically, participation in retail Bitcoin trading tends to increase sharply during periods of positive price performance, while retail activity shrinks during periods of positive price performance. Thick of a bear market.
However, Darkvost noted that the arrival of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has played an important role in this dynamic, as investors receive structured exposure to Bitcoin’s volatility. According to the latest market data, US-based exchange-traded funds have Extend their flow linerecording more than $52 million net capital inflow last week.
“However, the current lack of retail interest deserves close attention, as such periods have historically been associated with corrections already underway,” the analyst concluded.
Bitcoin price at a glance
As of this writing, Bitcoin is at around $70,350, reflecting a 0.6% jump over the past 24 hours. Despite rising to $75,500 earlier last week, the flagship cryptocurrency has since slowed to around $70,000 in recent days. According to CoinGecko data, Bitcoin’s value fell by about 0.4% in the past week.
The price of BTC on the daily timeframe | Source: BTCUSDT chart on TradingView
Featured image by DALL-E, chart from TradingView
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