The shortage of bitcoin on trading platforms, observed since the beginning of summer, has ended. According to new on-chain metrics from the analytical platform Santiment, investors returned 84% of previously withdrawn coins to liquid exchange wallets during the first three weeks of August, coinciding with the asset's price consolidation around the $63,500 level.
According to the visible supply on exchanges metric, the cryptocurrency outflow, which began on June 12 from a peak of 1.337 million $BTC, ended on July 28 at 1.304 million $BTC. During this six-week period, exchanges lost approximately 33,000 individual coins or 2.5%.
By August 16, balances had quickly recovered to 1.332 million $BTC. Currently, exchange reserves are only 5,200 coins below their previous June peak, and the coin inflow rate has stabilized.
Santiment experts emphasized that the issuance of new Bitcoin ETF shares is completely separate from public exchange addresses, as issuers buy coins directly from miners and large long-term holders via over-the-counter (OTC) platforms.
This suggests that the return of liquid supply to trading platforms is occurring independently of institutional capital flows.
The increasing pressure on currency balances reflects defensive actions by retail traders, who are actively accumulating liquidity on trading platforms for potential sales amid heightened external macroeconomic risks and expectations related to the release of protocols from the U.S. Federal Reserve's September meeting.
While large institutional funds continue to accumulate assets on the closed OTC market, retail traders have created a significant liquidity reserve on exchanges and are preparing to take profits or engage in emergency sales at the first signs of macroeconomic panic in the market.
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