Is retail still here? And if not… what will bring them back?
For retail, I think it’s still around and it’s never going to be at the point of extinction for whatever reason. They’re there for reasons that allow them to engage in it with different specifics.
Going by the title of your post, I would say "No". We haven't lost retail investors from the market. The challenge with retail investors is that they FOMO and get affected by FUD more often than the whales, and it then makes it look as if they are being overridden by the institutions and government. As much as bitcoin can be purchase in fractions which means we can all get it in tinny portions then retail investors still do have a place in bitcoin investment. The exception here is that they aren't given that significance in the market due to their little or no much influence or impact on market price movement.
You both didn't really understand the topic. When we talk about if retail is here or not, that does not mean there is no person left at all. Usually when discussing these topics on reddit or X, people look at google trends or appstore trends. Both indicate that retail is not here, not in any capacity similar to that of the previous bull run.
There is no substantial data to back up any postulate that cab be made about this issue
There is plenty of data, as I just explained.