Bitcoin is exiting exchanges at the fastest rate in years as its price inches close to its all-time high. On March 3, James Van Straten, a data analyst and researcher at cryptocurrency firm CryptoSlate, flagged billions of dollars worth of BTC withdrawals.
Traditional investors may not be fully back into crypto yet, but amid that backdrop, Bitcoin exchanges are running low on BTC reserves. Drawing data from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode, Van Straten revealed that on March 1 alone, withdrawals amounted to around $2 billion. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before,” Straten remarked.
In total, on Friday, about $2.3 billion worth of Bitcoin was withdrawn from exchanges. This marks one of the largest withdrawal amounts in over 5 years. Van Straten noted the role of Bitcoin ETF spot funds in the US, except for about $200 million sent to Coinbase Pro.
He continued: “Binance witnessed around $400 million and saw a significant outflow over the past few days. The outflow from Binance is interesting as it has nothing to do with ETFs.” Glassnode puts the total available BTC assets on the main trading platform it tracks at 2,286,347 BTC ($142.5 billion) as of March 2.
This is the lowest level since March 2018, when BTC/USD traded at just $8,000. Meanwhile, separate data tracking Bitcoin market components show that new entities are now participating.
In a recent market update, Crypto Dan, a contributor to on-chain analysis platform CryptoQuant, detected changes occurring in the age of unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs). More “younger” coins are participating, with “older” coins—inactive for six months or more—waking up.
He summarized: “New investors are pouring in, and in the near future, we can expect an influx of many new retail investors. Eventually, this ratio (UTXO) will continue to decline sharply, leading to the ‘real price discovery market’ that we desire.”