Bitcoin (BTC) exchange reserves are back near their all-time lows: Apparently the new year is stirring up a new appetite among shoppers.
Data from on-chain analytics company CryptoQuant shows that Reserves on 21 exchanges are 2,308 million BTC as of Jan 4.
Exchanges return to downward trend of overall BTC balance
At the end of December a macro minimum of 2,303 million BTC was registered on the books of the exchanges, according to CryptoQuant, before a brief rally to 2.334 million.
But nevertheless, as institutional entities return to the market after the holiday period, the downward trend has resumed, which is in line with expectations that higher volume buyers will intervene from the first quarter.
Exchange balance data is up for debate this week. Different sources of statistics use a different number of exchanges and wallets, resulting in barely comparable data.
CryptoQuant’s 21 exchanges, for example, compete with the 18 supervised by Glassnode and the 5 by CoinMetrics.
Another resource, Cryptorank, placed the balance at just 1.3 million BTC on Christmas Eve.
Depending on the platforms included, the trend may also be different, since Some exchanges saw an overall reduction in their balance over the past month, while others saw an increase.
If you leave out exchanges it skews the results. Leaving out eg. Huobi has a huge impact because of the China spot trading ban.https: //t.co/knyoF702kW
– Root (@therationalroot) January 3, 2022
If exchanges are left out, the results are distorted. Leaving out, for example, Huobi has a huge impact due to China’s ban on spot trading.
As Cointelegraph reported, This was the case for Huobi Global, which was forced to delist users from mainland China in late 2021 due to regulations..
Bigger fish to run the show
In a discussion With CryptoQuant last week, analyst David Puell, creator of the well-known Puell Multiple indicator, revealed his thoughts on the upcoming behavior of market participants.
Bitcoin’s “relaxed” nature in 2021 versus, say, 2019, has kept retail investors and their “FOMO” away.
“I believe that this is healthy in the long run, “he said.
“The market is going to be mostly owned by institutional players, especially on month-to-month price movements. You will see profit-taking from early adopters, but retail players will have a much more diminished role.”
Keep reading: