On October 23rd, according to data from CryptoQuant, retail investor activity slowed down between June and late September, but has started to pick up since October. "Retail demand has increased by about 13 percent in the last 30 days, showing a similar trend to when we were close to our last all-time high in March," the agency noted in its report released on Tuesday. The report noted that the increase in retail demand for bitcoin has coincided with the growth in institutional interest. Although retail investors are returning to the market, institutional investors have been steadily increasing their investment in bitcoin this year. This is in sharp contrast to Quarter 1 in 2024, when market demand was mainly driven by large investors. The current retail and institutional investor demand dynamics are similar to previous bitcoin market cycles, and the recent increase in retail activity could herald a similar pattern of optimism once again. To gauge retail investor demand, CryptoQuant looks at several key metrics. One of them is tracking the total amount of bitcoin held by wallets holding less than one bitcoin. This total has grown from 1.734 million bitcoins in mid-March to the current 1.752 million bitcoins, an increase of 18,000. Another indicator is the volume of on-chain transactions below $10,000, which reflects the activity of small investors and provides a reference for market sentiment among non-institutional investors. (The Block)