Bybit sees BTC, ETH ‘flight’ of institutional investors to stablecoins, but not for long
The cryptocurrency exchange Bybit released its fourth quarter report on Dec. 4, highlighting and comparing trends between its institutional and retail investors. The report found that institutional traders had some 45% of their assets in stablecoins, with the remaining split 35% in Bitcoin (BTC), 15% in Ether (ETH) and only 5% in altcoins, which the exchange categorizes as anything other than the aforementioned digital assets. The survey suggests that the “flight” to “safer assets,” like stablecoins, in a bear market “might explain this risk-averse asset allocation from traders.” Nonetheless, institutional traders allocation of Bitcoin did spike in September, which differentiated itself from the holding patterns of other types of users. According to Bybit, the alignment of a surge in institutional BTC holdings with the prevailing positive market attitude toward Bitcoin can be correlated with “favorable lawsuit outcomes, fostering anticipation for the SECs potential approval of a spot BTC ETF.” On Dec. 4, BTC surged above $41,000 for the first time in 19 months, and the overall market capitalization for the digital asset passed $800 billion, overtaking the real multinational holding company Berkshire Hathaway, and is now behind companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) and Nvidia. Bybit also noted that its retail traders had the lowest holdings, percentage-wise,