The website, which largely caters to “social” or beginner traders, increased its required deposit rate from $200 to $1,000.
Amy Butler, global head of PR for eToro, said in an email to CoinDesk that the number of new registrations and the amount of deposits and trading on the platform reached all new highs in 2021, fueled by crypto. “We have seen huge demand for crypto, especially bitcoin,” she said. “In this first week of 2021 we have seen days with over 40,000 new registered users in a day and volumes of crypto trades at 10 times the average of last year.,” Butler said.
Although the key driver of the bull run last year was institutional investors, eToro’s announcement of “unprecedented demand” may be an indication that retail traders are finally beginning to jump in with both feet.
The price of bitcoin has now risen more than 35 percent this year after notching more than a 300 percent jump in 2020.
Although the success of last year largely remained off the front page of non-crypto publications, the string of all-time highs this year has attracted more and more interest from the mainstream media. This is certainly causing increased curiosity on the part of institutional buyers, the likes of which are now overwhelming eToro, and even a “Fear Of Missing Out” (FOMO).