According to macro investment researcher Jim Bianco, retail traders are dominating the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States. Bianco analyzed the first quarter 13F filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and found that investment advisors held only 3 percent of the outstanding spot Bitcoin ETFs’ market cap, while hedge funds held the remaining portion. This led Bianco to believe that the spot Bitcoin ETFs were like “Orange FOMO poker chips.” He also noted that the average trade size of spot Bitcoin ETFs is around $15.3k, much lower than traditional spot ETFs, which have an average trade size of over $200k. Bianco believes that retail traders are using the same investment strategy in the spot Bitcoin ETFs as they do in meme coins. He also observed that cash inflows into the ETFs only happen when the price of Bitcoin increases. Bianco attributes the popularity of spot Bitcoin ETFs among retail traders to the simplicity of storage, rather than regulatory clarity. However, he warns that the increasing adoption of spot Bitcoin ETFs is killing the web3 industry and calls for the development of a new decentralized financial system. In terms of the market picture, the ongoing adoption of spot Bitcoin ETFs has positively impacted the price of Bitcoin, which has rallied over 5 percent in the last five days to trade at around $70k. However, Bitcoin’s dominance has been declining as altcoins gain traction in the market.
