Fundstrat’s Tom Lee: Bitcoin Pullback Is Healthy, Fewer Searches Аre Good

Fundstrat Global Advisers co-founder Thomas Lee wrote that the recent Bitcoin (BTC) pullback is healthy in a tweet on July 14.

In his tweet, Lee also addressed concerns over the recent decrease in Google searches for Bitcoin:

“As for the search traffic for bitcoin being low, I also think that is a good sign. It means the rise in Bitcoin has not been accompanied by massive hype.”

According to search analytics service Google Trends, Google searches for Bitcoin from within the United States have decreased by about 45% since their recent peak at the end of June.

Google search data for Bitcoin in the U.S. Source: Google Trends

The CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, said in an interview with Bloomberg on July 12 that the recent rally has been mostly driven by retail investors, who still account for about 60% of total trading volume. Zhao said:

“We have not seen institutions growing faster. [...] What we’ve seen is pickup in both places. The number of institutions coming into this industry has not increased that tremendously in 2019 yet.”

Bloomberg also suggests that margin trading is another catalyst for the recent growth. As Cointelegraph reported on July 11, Binance has rolled out margin trading features, allowing traders to use their existing balances as collateral to open both long and short positions on crypto assets. Zhao commented:

“I would say the majority of people by the end of the year will be using margin in some capacity. [...] It’s quite safe to use to be honest. There will be more trading volume and potentially higher volatility.”

At the end of June, Thomas Lee suggested that Bitcoin’s volatility makes a long-term approach toward it more appropriate for most traders.