Bitcoin is lower this morning and trying to hold on to that 76,000 handle while the crypto industry is navigating another major market cycle.
The macro environment continues to drive sentiment from shifting rates as well as inflation to new policy signals.
Now Bitcoin did grind its way back towards the 80,000 level recently.
Touching a 12 week high before retreating the momentum behind crypto does remain, and Bitcoin is up a little over 14% so far this month.
And against this backdrop of heavy institutional flows as well as macro volatility, we want to take a look at how everyday investors are positioning themselves.
Well joining us from Bitcoin 2026 Las Vegas is Andrew McCormick, the Head of eToro U.S. and you, good morning.
Thank you so much for joining us from Vegas.
I know it's early over there, but I do want to hear about what's happening on the ground as Bitcoin 2026 gets underway.
So first and foremost, tell us what you're seeing when it comes to sentiment and what are people talking about at this year's conference.
Yeah, Remy, thanks so much.
Happy to be here, bright and early morning from Las Vegas where there's tons of excitement about Bitcoin, and not just as an investment instrument, not just as something to put in a portfolio, but as an ecosystem development tool.
People are still excited.
I think last year there's a lot more focus on price and market movements, whereas this year it's more about building and infrastructure and legislation and regulation.
So the price may be down from it was last year at this time, but the excitement is still sky high.
And speaking of which, Andrew, as you mentioned, we are well off the highs that we saw at the end of last year, but Bitcoin is still on pace for its first double digit monthly gains since May of last year, and retail investors aren't just blindly chasing green candles.
So how is the growing overall macro awareness changing the way that everyday traders actually construct their portfolios?
Yeah, so Bitcoin is a unique asset class with a lot of true believers, a lot of people who just buy and hold for life, and every spare dollar they earn, they want to use it to buy Bitcoin.
And so whether markets are up or down, that resiliency is still there.
I think geopolitical events like the conflict and the war in Iran really highlight the value of Bitcoin because war is expensive, and we are now, I think over the past couple of days, the US is $39 trillion in debt, and so that power of the dollar over time is only going to go.
Down, it seems, unfortunately, but uh Bitcoin, it's limited.
There's 21 million.
There's only 1 million left to ever be mined and demand, I think, is only going to go up, whether it's new use cases from existing users or just bringing new people into the ecosystem.
Andrea, I have to say that given the information overload, I am addicted to my smartphone.
Just given the fact that we get so many headlines coming through on a regular basis even on the weekends, and I understand that eToro research shows that only 17% of retail investors. news headlines drive their decisions.
So when we're talking about a market that moves on rapid updates, whether it's geopolitical or macro.
How are investors actually utilizing a real-time AI sentiment tools to read the actual market mood instead of reacting to some of the noise out there.
Yeah, I thought that data was like really surprising.
And so we do these quarterly surveys of retail investors, and you kind of think, you know where things are going, but that was a really surprising update.
Um, people are using AI especially to get more and more information more quickly.
And I think what that data really shows is it may not be moving and changing convictions in rapid ways, but it's all part of that story, so you might learn a little bit of extra news today, maybe a little bit more tomorrow, and maybe there's a slight trajectory change, but Um, not as much emotional.
Here's the news.
Here's my TikTok posts I saw, and now I'm changing my whole, whole portfolio, uh, which I think is encouraging to see.
And some recent data also was really fascinating to show that almost 80% of retail investors are confident in their own investment strategy, their own portfolios, but a much smaller percentage, around 50%, are confident in the global economy.
And so to me that sounds like Investors might be worried about the news, things that's happened, but they feel confident in their own investment strategy, not just maybe for today, but for the long term.
Yes, and Andrew, building on what you just said, crypto already trades around the clock and traditional markets may be feeling some of that pressure to keep up.
I know that personally on the weekends before futures start trading, I'm keeping an eye on Bitcoin as well as crypto prices.
But with the role of artificial intelligence helping investors process all this information faster than ever, how close are we to a truly 24/7 investing environment and how do you expect that to actually transform the retail investment market?
Yeah, well, you might have to start like a midnight show or 2:00 a.m. show because I think people are gonna be trading all the time very soon.
And I think it, it will be a huge boost, especially for US equities, because today there's like 7 or 8.5 billion people who live outside the United States who maybe aren't on a typical 9:30 to 4 o'clock type of schedule, um, who have a hard time trading in traditional equities in US companies, but that can soon change, and I think within Probably a year or two, we're going to see 24, 5, maybe even beyond trading of all listed equities here in the US.
And so if you're a retail investor in Singapore or Dubai or Anolia, you're going to have an opportunity to trade in US companies just like Americans do today.
And Andrew, finally, before I let you go, I do want to hear about the takeaway so far from the Bitcoin conference on Monday.
So what did you hear and what are you looking forward to as you head into today?
Yeah, so two big things, and it's kind of more on the nerdy regulatory legislation front as opposed to like products.
Uh, so one, we had senators yesterday on stage saying they are confident the Clarity Act will be passed.
It has been a discussion for years and especially a very passionate discussion for the past couple of months, and it seems like it has gotten punted a few times, but leading senators said it's gonna happen.
We're gonna get to the finish line in May, so that was very encouraging.
And we also heard from a White House representative who said there's big news coming out on a Bitcoin strategic reserve um policy soon and so very intrigued to hear about those two and feel very encouraged about what I've heard so far today at the conference.
Well, Andrew, we appreciate your time.
We know you're 3 hours behind us, so thank you so much for joining us early in the morning and have a great time at the conference.
Thanks so much.
Take care.
