Bitcoin’s retail interest rate recovery is still in its infancy, with just $56 billion in customer trade volumes recorded in Q1 2024.

The retail interest rate recovery is far less than the $133.75 billion quarterly average from the previous comparable rally in 2021.

The most recent increase was driven by the establishment of U.S. bitcoin exchange-traded funds, making it a more somber institutional event.

Small-time investors are still feeling the effects of the over two-year-long cryptocurrency winter, during which bitcoin hovered around $20,000 to $30,000. The collapse of well-known cryptocurrency businesses, including Three Arrows Capital, Celsius Network, and FTX, stranded billions of consumer cash.

More than half of the $2.26 trillion market capitalization of digital assets is made up of bitcoin, which some market participants believe may experience a period of rotation as investors take profits on the coin and choose to purchase riskier altcoins like ether.