On-chain data shows the Bitcoin exchange reserves have been at 8-year lows for the past month despite the recovery that the asset has witnessed.
Bitcoin Supply On Exchanges Has Been Flat Recently
As highlighted by on-chain analytics firm Santiment in an X post, Bitcoin and Ethereum have differed in their trend of the Supply On Exchanges. This indicator measures, as its name suggests, the total amount of a given asset that’s currently stored in the wallets associated with centralized exchanges.
When the value of the metric rises, it means investors are depositing a net number of tokens to these platforms. As one of the main reasons why holders transfer to exchanges is for selling-related purposes, this kind of trend can have a bearish impact on the cryptocurrency’s price.
On the other hand, the indicator witnessing a decline suggests the exchange outflows are overwhelming the inflows. Such a trend implies the investors may be participating in accumulation, which can naturally be a bullish signal.
Now, here is the chart shared by Santiment that shows the trend in the Supply On Exchanges for Bitcoin and Ethereum over the past year:
Looks like the value of the metric has gone up for ETH in recent days | Source: Santiment on X
As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin Supply On Exchanges observed some decline during March and has since followed a mostly flat trajectory. Currently, around 5.6% of the BTC supply is sitting inside exchange-connected wallets. “It has stayed consistent around this level for the past month, and it is the lowest ratio of BTC supply on exchanges since 2018,” noted the analytics firm.
While Bitcoin has witnessed its exchange supply remain flat at 8-year lows recently, the trend has been a bit different for Ethereum. From the chart, it’s apparent that ETH observed a much more dramatic decline in the Supply On Exchanges compared to BTC for most of the past year, but recently, the trajectory has flipped for the network.
Over the past 10 days, Ethereum has seen the indicator go from 4.2% to 4.6%, which is a notable increase. “Nevertheless, this is also still near the lowest levels we’ve seen since $ETH’s public trading inception back in 2015,” explained Santiment.
Interestingly, the flat exchange netflow for Bitcoin has arrived while BTC has observed a recovery surge. This means that despite the profit-taking opportunity, holders haven’t made deposits to sell.
Something to note when it comes to the Supply On Exchanges is that while exchanges held a central role in the digital asset sector earlier, the paradigm has shifted recently as a result of the emergence of off-chain investment routes like the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). As such, the exchange reserves alone no longer capture the full picture of the market.
BTC Price
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $79,400, down 0.9% in the last seven days.
The trend in the price of the coin over the last five days | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
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