JPMorgan says retail demand is back as deleveraging cools

JPMorgan says deleveraging in May and June was the most intense since 2018, but that’s getting behind the crypto ecosystem amid increased retail demand.

JPMorgan analysts are saying positivity among retail investors is on the upward trajectory, with an improved  market outlook coming on the back of huge turbulence and uncertainty.

The banking giant notes in a report cited by CoinDesk on Thursday that the unfolding improvement is down to the reducing intensity of the massive deleveraging that characterised the market crash in May and June, as well as over the last several months following the 2021 bull run.

According to JPMorgan analysts, “the extreme phase of backwardation” witnessed in the market over the last two months was the worst since 2018. However, that extreme pain period looks to be fading off amid the sharp crypto price bounces seen this past few days.

Bitcoin (BTC) jumped above $24,000 to test its highest level in over a month, with on-chain data from Glassnode showing the number of wallets in loss (7 day moving average) has dropped to a 30-day low.

📉 #Bitcoin $BTC Number of Addresses in Loss (7d MA) just reached a 1-month low of 17,194,797.077

View metric:https://t.co/s2ciFMlDcX pic.twitter.com/dDl6bzylKw

— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) July 21, 2022

Retail demand jumps amid Ethereum “Merge” news

While Bitcoin’s upside was remarkable, the main avenue of positivity was around Ethereum (ETH), the bank said.

Investor expectations are high after last week’s announcement that Ethereum’s long anticipated “Merge” would be hitting mainnet in September. The buying pressure around the excitement for cryptocurrency’s largest smart contracts platform also seeped into the rest of the market, with ETH/USD jumping above $1,500 as the overall crypto market cap crossed above $1 trillion.

For Ethereum, the number of addresses in profit (7 day moving average) has also reached a one month high.

Notably, the bounce in crypto prices isn’t reflected in crypto funds or futures market, which the bank says is indicative of demand being retail-driven.

Further evidence of retail demand is seen in the increase in the number of “smaller wallets” holding BTC or ETH, JPMorgan added