Matrixport: Retail Investor Buying Demand Remains Unclear, Extending the Current Consolidation Phase

Odaily News Matrixport released a chart stating that retail participation has remained low over the past year. Observing the trading volume in the Korean market as an indicator, buying demand from the retail side is still not evident.

Insufficient retail demand and a lack of incremental buying support in the market have made it difficult for perpetual contract funding rates to rise, keeping them at low levels for an extended period. Low funding rates, in turn, compress the profit margins for basis trading (cash-and-carry arbitrage), thereby limiting the incremental inflows into Bitcoin ETFs and keeping their overall levels relatively moderate.

This also confirms the judgment we made in March 2024: without a retail-driven market pushing the futures-spot spread, the pace of institutional capital allocation is unlikely to accelerate significantly, thus prolonging the current consolidation phase.