Measures of retail engagement have not followed prices this cycle. New verified accounts at four large exchanges grew modestly, well below the pace of previous recoveries.
Order-size distribution supports the same conclusion: the share of trades below a thousand dollars has fallen, indicating turnover is being driven by larger accounts.
Search interest and app store rankings, imperfect but useful proxies, remain far below their prior peaks in every major market examined.
One plausible explanation is that retail exposure has migrated into listed funds, which would not appear in exchange account data at all.
For platforms whose revenue depends on retail spreads, the distinction matters more than the price chart: the same market capitalisation is producing materially less trading revenue.
