Matrixport released a chart showing that retail investor participation has remained consistently low over the past year. Using trading volume in the South Korean market as an indicator, retail buying demand remains weak. Insufficient retail demand and a lack of incremental buying support have hindered the rise of perpetual contract funding rates, keeping them low for an extended period. Low funding rates further compress the profit margins of basis trading (futures-spot arbitrage), thus limiting incremental inflows into Bitcoin ETFs, keeping them at a relatively moderate level overall. This confirms our assessment in March 2024: without retail investor participation driving futures-spot price spreads, institutional fund allocation will be difficult to accelerate significantly, thus prolonging the current consolidation phase.