Bitcoin (BTC) whales are the center of attention this week as buying and selling habits split the BTC price narrative.
New findings from on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant show derivatives investors leading the way when it comes to bullish bets on Bitcoin.
“Sick” BTC price indicator favors bulls
The second half of November produced a marked uptick in the buy/sell ratio on major derivatives trading platform Deribit, and for contributing analyst Cole Garner, this is a sure sign that price action will react positively in the near term.
“I recently discovered the ratio of market buys & sells of perpetuals on Deribit Exchange is a sick leading indicator,” he commented.
“This is a 30 day WMA. Strong bullish trends in the metric have preceded every strong bullish price trend of this bull. And it just printed monster bull move.”
The data ties in with other recent observations from the exchange sphere against a backdrop of whale interest continuing throughout the price correction from all-time highs.
Exchange reserves more broadly are now at four-year lows, meaning exchanges have less BTC on their books than at any time since the old all-time highs of $20,000 in 2017.
Fed pressure on BTC positions
The flipside, however, lies with stablecoins. Redemptions of those hit all-time highs of their own this week, with the implication that whales are hedging exposure to BTC.
Related: ‘I think BTC is ready’ — 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week
“Redeemed Stable Coin index indicates ATH(All Time High). Not sure if the whales are cashing out ahead of the market’s volatility in response to the December 16th FOMC announcement, but that’s also one of the uncertainties,” CryptoQuant contributor Dan Lim explained.
“So far, we still be careful until some uncertainties will be resolved.”
This week will see the United States Federal Reserve meet to give signals on the future of quantitative easing in the form of asset purchases, something that could have wide-reaching consequences for macro and crypto markets alike.