Bitcoin Retail Investors Expected To Add BTC Ahead Of Halfing 2024

Bitcoin, the largest crypto asset by price capitalization. (Photo; Doc. Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Despite Bitcoin facing selling pressure in recent weeks, analysts from JPMorgan believe that retail investors' demand for this cryptocurrency will continue to be strong until the next Halving event in mid-2024.

In its latest research report, strategist JPMorgan noted that retail demand for Bitcoin is expected to remain high in the coming year.

For information, Halfing Bitcoin occurs every four years and reduces the reward for Bitcoin miners by half. This event is scheduled for April 2024 and is expected to increase Bitcoin production costs.

This creates a positive psychological impact on the price of Bitcoin and reinforces retail investors' decision to accumulate Bitcoin ahead of halling. Although institutional demand for Bitcoin has decreased due to rising uncertainty in the market, retail investors remain interested in Bitcoin as a hedge.

JPMorgan noted that after the banking crisis in the US earlier this year, institutional investors tended to choose gold as a hedge asset, while retail investors tended to choose Bitcoin.

Even so, Bitcoin developers are considering discontinuing support for Bitcoin-based memecoins, such as Pepecoin (PEPE), which disrupts the normal use of Bitcoin's network as a peer-to-peer digital currency. The increase in memecoin activity has led to a surge in Bitcoin gas costs that disrupts transactions and use of Bitcoin as a means of payment and store of value.

In the future, it will be interesting to see how retail demand for Bitcoin ahead of the 2024 halving event, as well as the steps that Bitcoin developers will take. Halfing Bitcoin is expected to have a positive impact on the price of Bitcoin and further strengthen retail investors' interest in the largest cryptocurrency by market cap.