In March 2023, the global financial market experienced a shock, especially the price of Bitcoin, which plummeted by 50% in just a few days. This incident has attracted widespread attention, not only affecting the market trend, but also profoundly changing the mentality and behavior of retail investors. Many people chose to increase their investment during this period, showing great interest in Bitcoin. Behind this phenomenon, there is not only the direct impact of market fluctuations, but also the psychological changes of retail investors in the face of risks and the adjustment of investment strategies.

Before discussing this phenomenon, we must first understand the reasons for the plunge in Bitcoin prices. In March 2023, the global economic situation was complex and volatile, with factors such as high inflation, rising interest rates, and geopolitical tensions intertwined, leading to drastic fluctuations in investor sentiment. As a relatively high-risk asset, Bitcoin was naturally the first to be hit, and its price fell rapidly in a short period of time.

However, surprisingly, while prices plummeted, retail investors' interest surged. According to multiple market surveys, although many retail investors chose to wait and see when prices fell, a considerable number of investors chose to enter the market at low prices, believing that this was a "bottom-fishing" opportunity. Such behavior reflects retail investors' firm confidence in the future potential of Bitcoin and their ability to adapt to market fluctuations.

The changes in retail investors' behavior can be analyzed from several aspects. First, many retail investors have gradually formed independent views on Bitcoin after a period of market observation. They are not only influenced by social media and online forums, but also participate in various investment communities to exchange information and strategies. When the price of Bitcoin fell sharply, they were not in a hurry to sell, but regarded it as an opportunity worth investing.

Secondly, the psychological characteristics of retail investors also played an important role at this time. Many people tend to have a "reverse thinking" mentality when investing in Bitcoin, believing that they can get greater returns by entering the market during panic. This mentality has, to a certain extent, driven their investment decisions during the crash. For example, some investors shared their experience of buying at the lowest price on social platforms, and even formed an investment philosophy of "calmness in panic", encouraging more people to participate.

Thirdly, technological advances have also provided retail investors with more convenient trading conditions. Nowadays, many trading platforms allow users to conduct real-time transactions on their mobile phones, so they can grasp market dynamics anytime and anywhere. This convenience enables retail investors to respond quickly to price fluctuations and seize every investment opportunity. For example, on a well-known trading platform, the number of active users surged and the trading volume reached a record high in the days when the price plummeted, which fully demonstrated the activity of retail investors.

In the long run, the market trend after the Bitcoin crash may affect the behavior patterns of retail investors in the future. As more and more people participate in the digital currency market, how to stay calm in the volatility has become a challenge that every investor must face. Retail investors need to improve their market analysis capabilities and learn how to make rational decisions in a complex market environment.

The future of Bitcoin is still full of variables. Although the current market sentiment has warmed up, the future trend is still difficult to predict. How should retail investors adjust their investment strategies in the face of such uncertainty? First, establish a scientific investment plan, clarify your risk tolerance and return goals, formulate corresponding investment strategies, and avoid arbitrarily adjusting positions in market fluctuations. Second, use technical analysis tools to help yourself better understand market trends and make more reasonable investment decisions.

During this period, many investors also began to pay attention to the fundamental factors of Bitcoin, such as technological updates and changes in market demand. These factors can affect the long-term value of Bitcoin to a certain extent. For example, as the Bitcoin network continues to upgrade, transaction speed and security have improved, attracting more users and investors. This improvement in fundamentals also provides support for the confidence of retail investors.

In addition, retail investors can also learn from the strategies of institutional investors and focus on some long-term investment opportunities. Although the market fluctuates greatly in the short term, in the long run, Bitcoin's "gold" status as a digital currency is still worth looking forward to. Many experts predict that with the development of the digital economy, the demand for Bitcoin will continue to increase, and its value will gradually recover.

In this process, the role of retail investors is also evolving. Compared with the past, today's retail investors are more mature and can view market fluctuations more rationally. They no longer simply follow market trends, but begin to actively learn and explore to improve their investment literacy. Such changes not only help reduce investment risks, but also lay the foundation for future investment decisions.

In short, although the 50% plunge in Bitcoin in March 2023 brought short-term market panic, it also prompted retail investors to show extraordinary resilience and determination in the face of adversity. In the face of market fluctuations, the behavioral and psychological changes of retail investors are worthy of in-depth study. In the future investment journey, only by continuous learning and adaptation can we remain invincible in a complex market environment. All this reminds us that investment is not just a digital game, but also a contest of mentality and wisdom.

The four most famous international exchanges:

Binance INTL	OKX INTL	Gate.io INTL	Huobi INTL
China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL

Note: The above exchange logo is the official website registration link, and the text is the APP download link.

The crypto market has not been immune to the recent global market crash. Bitcoin prices have fallen in tandem with global stocks and commodities. As of April 18, its price has shrunk by about $10,500 from its February peak.
33% .
Yet, both retail and institutional investors appear unmoved. Multiple data sets, from software downloads and website traffic to on-chain metrics and investment inflows, suggest that investors are buying the dip.
Retail investors continue to buy Bitcoin
If you were there when Bitcoin plunged nearly 50% in the early evening of March 12, you may remember the headlines at the time. When analysts predicted that the price of the currency would even fall further, there was even talk that BTC
It might really go back to zero.
But bitcoin investors did not back down. In a post-mortem report on the crash, Coinbase said that on March 12 and 13,
On the 28th, the height of the sell-off, its retail clients bought 69% more bitcoin than they sold, above its 12-month average of about 60%.
The same report said the company’s cash and cryptocurrency deposits grew fivefold on the same day.
Other data indicators also depict similar trends. More recent data from Coinbase through its app shows that as of April 17, 78% of its active retail customer base has purchased Bitcoin in the past 24 hours.
Increased BTC net position within the hour.
A similar trend has been seen at CMC Markets and IG.com - two trading platforms that offer derivatives to retail investors.
Patel found that the two brokerages reported that the majority of traders on their platforms, about 80%, were long Bitcoin contracts rather than shorting them.
Existing crypto investors aren’t the only ones seizing the opportunity to buy the dip. New investors are also entering the market.
A Kraken spokesperson told Decrypt in late March that the company had seen an 83% increase in sign-ups, “and another 300% increase in intermediate verifications.”
”, allowing users to deposit fiat currency instantly. , Bitfinex, Paxful and Luno also confirmed to the site that they have seen significant growth in registrations and trading volumes.
The Block reported that cryptocurrency apps in the Apple App Store, including Coinbase and other trading apps, were
They have all received "higher attention" after the plunge on the day.
This is also confirmed by LongHash’s analysis using the app review tracking site AppFollow. We found that among the top 100 “Finance” apps on the Google Play Store,
In the ranking, Coinbase rose from 38th on March 12 to 26th as of April 18. Blockchain Wallet
A similar trend was reflected in the ranking of , the flagship app of cryptocurrency startup Blockchain.com.
Global internet participation data from Amazon’s Alexa also shows that since last month’s plunge, .com, Bittrex.com, Bitfinex.com,
Coinbase.com and many other top exchanges moved up hundreds of spots.
If you still don’t want to believe it, you can look at the on-chain data, which is difficult to fake.
Blockchain data provider Coin Metrics reported in its “State of the Network” published on April 7 that “over the past 90 days, 1 billionth of the total supply of Bitcoin (BTC) has been held by 100 million people.”
The number of addresses from 1/1 B to 1/100 M has increased by about 6%.
Addresses in this subset hold no more than $100 in assets and are typically retail buyers who are just beginning to get involved in Bitcoin. As Coin Metrics explains: “New users initially buy
The amount of BTC is relatively small,” which is the part of the address they highlighted in the report.
Glassnode data also supports this conclusion. The analysis company reported on April 15
A report released on the 28th confirmed that “new user activity on the Bitcoin network has begun to accelerate,” with the weekly moving average of new entities using the network rising from 6,000 per day in mid-March to 2,000 in mid-April.
17000 per day.
In short, new investors are entering the market, and they are buying Bitcoin at a fast pace.
Wall Street is also showing a similar trend
This trend isn’t limited to regular investors. Wall Street is also increasing its involvement in the Bitcoin market as the crypto market is once again mired in volatility.
Grayscale Investments, a crypto fund management company and provider, released its first quarter investment report on April 16. The company reported that its products received 5.037 billion in the first quarter of 2020.
$1 billion in investments in the fourth quarter of 2019—more than double the amount in the fourth quarter of 2019. 99% of the funds went to the company’s Bitcoin Trust and Ethereum Trust, priced at GBTC and EHT, respectively.
Trade over the counter.
Eric Ervin, CEO of Reality Shares, noted that high demand for Grayscale’s products has led to a relative increase in the value of its Ethereum Trust as of April 7.
ETH is trading at a 540% premium.
Although these investment vehicles are also available to qualified retail traders, Grayscale insists that 88% of the $503.7 million in funds
From institutional investors. Hedge funds, including hedge fund operators that do not invest primarily in cryptocurrencies or blockchain, "dominate" Grayscale's institutional business.
Bitwise Asset Management, a firm that offers similar institutional products to Grayscale, echoed that sentiment. Although it did not release more detailed earnings reports, Matt Hogan, the firm’s head of research, said:
Hougan wrote in a company letter:
“In this environment, adding a small cryptocurrency allocation to a diversified portfolio appears to be an increasingly prudent approach. We are hearing this from our clients and seeing it in our inflows.”
Mainstream Wall Street firms have also seen investors flock to cryptocurrencies. In a conversation with Frank Chaparro of The Block, Chaparro said:
Chaparro, a spokesperson for Fidelity Digital Assets — the crypto arm of multi-trillion dollar asset manager Fidelity Investments — said:
"From a transaction perspective, we continue to onboard new customers each month and are seeing significant pipeline growth. We have seen additional momentum in recent weeks."
Chaparro also singled out pensions, family offices and macro hedge funds as a grouping of institutional investors the firm is serving during the crisis.
The financial services giant, which manages trillions of dollars in assets, caused a stir in late 2018 when it announced it would build a Wall Street-level Bitcoin trading and custody solution.
Following beta testing, the platform will be rolled out to Fidelity’s global institutional clients.
CME’s Bitcoin futures market - Due to the contract value of 5 BTC (approximately equal to 35,000
USD), a market that primarily serves institutional clients—also achieved sustained quarterly growth. Hunter Horsley of Bitwise shared CME
Data shows that the average daily open interest in the Bitcoin futures market hit a new high of 4,902 contracts in the first quarter of 2020, equivalent to nearly 25,000 BTC. For reference, this indicator is
The corresponding figure for the fourth quarter of 2019 was 3,339 contracts.
What’s behind the surge in retail investor interest?
The stark contrast between the collapsing markets and the growing number of investors raises a number of questions. First, what is enticing investors into cryptocurrencies as the global economy enters what the International Monetary Fund estimates is its worst contraction since the Great Depression?
The data suggests that retail and institutional investors are attracted to Bitcoin for different reasons.
A key catalyst for retail investors appears to be the upcoming Bitcoin block reward halving, which will reduce the number of Bitcoins generated for each block mined every ten minutes from 12.5 to 6.25.
Bitcoin halving is estimated to take place in 20 days (as of writing time) according to BitcoinBlockHalf.com.
LongHash said on April 9 that according to Google Trends data, public attention to the keyword "Bitcoin halving" increased more than 4 times from early December to a peak in mid-March.
Since our report, people have become more interested in Bitcoin halving, and the latest data from Google shows that last month, Google users around the world searched for "Bitcoin halving" more than any other month before. The search engine also predicts that in April
In January, searches for “bitcoin halving” will triple from the previous month, which is already a record high.
According to Google data, since the beginning of this year, the keywords "buy bitcoin" and "bitcoin halving" have maintained a trend of synchronous growth and shrinkage. The correlation is not absolute, but it is clear that the two influence each other.
What’s behind the interest from institutional investors?
Institutional interest in Bitcoin appears to be driven by different factors. Institutions may be planning to invest in Bitcoin because they see its ability to hedge against the risks of money printing and the erosion of overall trust in fiat currencies.
In the aforementioned article about Fidelity Investments, a spokesperson for the asset manager said that its cryptocurrency-focused financial services arm is seeing growing interest, fueled by the narrative surrounding Bitcoin being viewed as digital gold:
“We are seeing more momentum across the business, with the discussion of Bitcoin as a store of value and digital gold narrative, for example, increasingly resonating with investors.”
This statement has been supported by many people. Bloomberg Intelligence’s latest issue of “Crypto Outlook”
Bloomberg Commodities cited factors such as a decline in overall volatility, the convergence of the trajectories of gold and Bitcoin, and the depreciation of fiat currencies as reasons for its bullish view on cryptocurrencies.
As LongHash reported on March 22, the above narrative is under scrutiny due to Bitcoin’s recent correlation with nearly all assets, with the most recent being Bitcoin’s 1.3x higher than the 1.5x higher than the 1.5x higher than the 1.5x higher.
1 to March 17), U.S. Treasuries were virtually the only true “safe haven asset.”
In a series of interviews posted to Real Version, the interviewees include Peter Brandt of Factor
Brandt, crypto hedge fund manager Dan Pantera, and Real Vision CEO and former Goldman Sachs executive Raoul Pal.
Pal) — mentioned central bank actions, or rather radical actions, as their reason for being bullish on Bitcoin.
Of course, it’s impossible to know how buyers would react if crypto markets crashed again. But so far, the interest in Bitcoin from both retail and institutional investors shows the resilience and vitality of this nascent industry.

However, although retail investors have shown a strong willingness to buy during the plunge, we cannot ignore the risks involved. In extremely unstable markets, blindly following the trend of investment may lead to greater losses. Many investors make decisions under impulse, which often makes them regret it in the subsequent market rebound. Therefore, rational investment is always an important principle that retail investors need to follow.