Bybit Report Investor Stablecoin Holdings Decrease to Approximately 43 from 50

Stablecoin Holdings Decrease to Approximately 43% Among Investors: Bybit Report


Ruholamin Haqshanas
Last updated:
June 24, 2024 06:35 EDT
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2 min read


Institutional and retail investors have seen a drop in stablecoin holdings from 50.2% in December to 42.8% in May, according to Bybit’s Q2 Asset Allocation report. The decrease in the percentage of stablecoin holdings among all users has been observed over the past month. At the same time, the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, remains the largest single asset held, making up 26% of total assets as of May 2024.
When stablecoins are excluded, Bitcoin and Ethereum together constitute 61% of users’ crypto investments. Both institutional and retail traders continue to show a preference for Bitcoin over Ethereum, despite the renewed optimism for ETH Spot ETFs.
The report also highlights the clear preference of institutional investors for Bitcoin, especially following the SEC’s approval of Bitcoin Spot ETFs in January 2024. Institutional Bitcoin holdings have consistently increased, while their Ether positions have seen a surprising decrease. This suggests that institutions view Bitcoin as the more attractive option, potentially due to concerns about Ether Spot ETFs not including staking rewards.
Retail traders demonstrated their ability to time the market during the March-April 2024 correction. They reduced their Bitcoin positions in March and gradually added them back in April and May, indicating that some were able to avoid the pullback and capitalize on the market’s rebound.
The report also emphasized the asset allocation strategies of different user segments, with institutions holding more concentrated positions in Bitcoin and Ether, and retail traders showing a preference for new altcoins.
Altcoin holdings have seen notable fluctuations, with a drop from 25% in January 2024 to 20.9%, followed by a rebound to 22.5% in May 2024. These fluctuations were driven by new trading narratives, such as Bitcoin Layer 2 projects and meme tokens, which have become popular among retail traders.
In an effort to leverage stablecoins, PayPal introduced its PYUSD stablecoin last year to facilitate instant and lower-cost transfers within its payment infrastructure. Similarly, Stripe announced on April 25 that it would allow merchants using its platform to accept stablecoins for online transactions. The company is starting with USDC stablecoins on the Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon blockchains.