Despite the widespread belief that retail investors have exited the cryptocurrency space, that’s not the case. According to Vugar Usi Zade, chief operating officer of Bitget, they’ve simply changed their approach.
In an interview with Cointelegraph at the Consensus conference in Toronto, Canada, Usi Zade explained that retail trading has shifted away from rampant speculation and toward more practical and sustainable use cases.
He attributes this change, in part, to lingering PTSD from the last crypto market cycle, as well as broader macroeconomic uncertainty fueled by the Trump administration, which has placed downward pressure on risk assets throughout 2025.
“Retail investors’ appetite for risk is much lower because we know what happened with the stock market and every other aspect,” Usi Zade said. “There’s less disposable income to play around with, but people are becoming smarter with their investments.”
Bitget is responding to this behavioral shift by expanding into crypto payments and utility-driven services, including Bitget Pay and stablecoin solutions.
The fallout from the 2021 bull run, followed by a harsh bear market and high-profile collapses, has driven users to seek safer, more functional applications for their crypto holdings.
“Several exchanges are tapping into the payment processing market through crypto,” Usi Zade noted, “which brings us more toward retail use and everyday spending habits, rather than just earning or trading.”
He also emphasized the growing role of decentralized exchanges (DEXs), which now account for nearly 10% of the crypto derivatives market. These platforms are attracting users who want early access to tokens that are not available on centralized exchanges.
“People still want to do big things,” Usi Zade said, “but not necessarily within the formal arena.” DEXs allow users “to tap into opportunities very, very early.”
Bitget has emerged as one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, with more than $3.4 billion in average daily volumes as of May 31, according to CoinMarketCap. Over 800 cryptocurrencies are listed on the centralized exchange, though millions more are available through Bitget Onchain, which supports trading across hundreds of DEXs and crosschain bridges.
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Full-blown crypto bull and bear markets are a thing of the past
The evolution of the crypto market likely marks the end of the traditional boom-and-bust cycles defined by euphoric rallies and prolonged crashes, said Usi Zade.
Since the last cycle, clear-cut bull or bear markets are unlikely to materialize, he said. “Instead, we’ll experience bull episodes and bear episodes.”
Usi Zade pointed to Bitcoin (BTC) as the crypto industry’s biggest outlier — trading in what he described as “its own free flow.” This dynamic carries both advantages and risks for crypto investors.
On the one hand, introducing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has attracted more institutional investors to Bitcoin. But at the same time, Bitcoin is increasingly influenced by the same macroeconomic forces that move traditional markets, whether monetary policy shifts, economic data releases, or even social media posts from US President Donald Trump.
“Therefore, it’s a very interesting place to be, and I think as an exchange we are trying to reinvent ourselves first with all the regulations and KYCs; we are becoming more of a bank-like organization.”
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