A Quiet Shift in Market Leadership: Retail Exit and Whale-Driven Supply–Demand Dynamics in Bitcoin
The Bitcoin market is not in a strong trend, but in a consolidation phase marked by range-bound price action and structural rebuilding. Within this environment, the bias remains conditionally bullish, while short-term overheating risks persist.
A key structural change is the shift in participant quality. CryptoQuant data shows retail activity in both spot and futures markets remains muted, while “Big Whale Orders” continue to appear across spot and derivatives markets, indicating growing influence from large participants.
The 90-day Spot Taker CVD has turned back to Taker Buy Dominant, signaling sustained aggressive buying despite limited price appreciation. This suggests sell-side pressure is constrained and supply is being absorbed at lower levels, reflecting an improvement in supply–demand structure rather than speculative excess.
Futures markets show rising volumes and taker buying, pointing to localized overheating and leverage risk. However, spot market data still indicates ongoing whale accumulation, allowing derivative-driven adjustments and spot absorption to occur simultaneously.
The base scenario remains one where retail participation fades while whales absorb spot supply. This view would need reassessment if leverage-driven deterioration in market structure reemerges.
Bitcoin Short-term Holders Just Moved From Taking Losses to Locking in Profits
This chart tracks STH profit and loss to exchanges. After weeks of selling mostly at a loss (purple), the last 24 hours printed the biggest profit spike in this whole range (green) as the price grinds higher.
Takeaway: late buyers finally got liquidity and are selling into it. Big STH profit spikes tend to show up near local trend exhaustion, not at the start of a clean leg higher.
Binance Ethereum Leverage Ratio and Price Relationship
There is a recurring pattern observed on the chart. When the Leverage Ratio rises rapidly above the price, excessively leveraged long positions start to accumulate in the market. This creates favorable conditions for liquidity hunts.
First, a sharp but short lived price drop occurs. This is then followed by a strong upward price reaction. This cycle can be clearly seen on the chart during February, April, September, and November 2025. Therefore, it is understood that these declines are mainly for leverage cleansing purposes.
Especially in April 2025, leverage increases, the price drops, leverage decreases, and then the price rises strongly.
In October 2025, a sharp leverage spike and a sudden dump are observed, followed by trend continuation.
Based on these observations, it can be said that rising leverage is not the cause of price declines, but rather a trigger for them.
The current situation is very important. The Leverage Ratio is around 0.60, which is historically a very high range. The price is trading below the Leverage Ratio. In the past, this combination has produced a short-term wick followed by a new upward impulse. Currently, leverage is not decreasing despite price increases. This indicates that there is still a strong willingness in the market to hold positions.
In light of these data, we can say that the probability of an upward move in the market is high.
However, a short term liquidation-driven cleanup may occur beforehand.
Historically, every decline that occurred when leverage was at these levels resulted in a 10–25% price increase. If the same scenario plays out again, the price may show sharp and rapid upward movements.
Bitcoin’s Mid-January Rebound: a Structural Look At Macro Relief, ETF Flows, and Short Covering
The Bitcoin price increase observed on January 14–15 is best interpreted as a rebound within an existing range following a corrective phase, rather than the start of a new structural uptrend. Over the prior two months, Bitcoin had traded in high-level consolidation, with selling pressure near the upper range and demand emerging on pullbacks. Although prices weakened briefly in early January, there was no clear evidence of large-scale long-term holder distribution or a structural deterioration in supply-demand conditions.
The dominant explanation for this move is that spot demand and leverage unwinding occurred simultaneously under a temporarily stabilized external environment. On January 13, U.S. CPI data came in broadly in line with market expectations, easing concerns about renewed inflation acceleration and further rapid monetary tightening. This reduced macro-driven downside pressure and allowed internal market dynamics to play a larger role in price formation.
In parallel, progress reported in the U.S. Congress on digital asset market structure legislation, commonly referred to as the CLARITY Act, contributed to a stabilization in market sentiment by reducing regulatory uncertainty, even though it was not a direct short-term price catalyst.
Within this context, inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs provided the initial upward impulse. As prices approached the upper end of the range, short liquidations in the derivatives market accelerated the move through forced buybacks. The recovery in the Coinbase Premium Gap suggests that U.S.-based spot demand strengthened during this period.
At present, this price action is best viewed as a demand-driven rebound within a range. If spot demand weakens again, this interpretation would need to be reassessed.
Bitcoin Market Structure: Spot Demand Returns While Derivatives Cool Down
Analyzing Spot Taker CVD (90D), Futures Taker CVD (90D), and Open Interest across all exchanges provides a clear picture of Bitcoin’s current market structure.
Spot Taker CVD has recently shifted from a prolonged sell-dominant phase into neutral and early buy-dominant territory. This transition suggests that real spot demand is gradually returning, indicating accumulation rather than panic-driven selling.
On the derivatives side, Futures Taker CVD shows that aggressive sell pressure has significantly weakened. While strong long aggression has not yet emerged, the reduction in taker-driven selling points to short-side exhaustion and stabilization rather than active distribution.
Meanwhile, Open Interest experienced a sharp reset following its peak, reflecting forced position closures and leverage cleanup. The recent recovery in Open Interest is measured and controlled, occurring alongside price stability rather than excessive leverage buildup.
🔍 Combined Interpretation
When viewed together, these three metrics indicate that:
Spot buyers are stepping back in
Derivatives markets are no longer aggressively short
Leverage has been flushed and is rebuilding cautiously
This combination is typically observed during post-distribution consolidation phases, where the market transitions from correction to structural recovery.
🎯 Market Bias
From an on-chain perspective, the current setup favors stability with a mild upside bias, rather than conditions associated with cycle tops or overheated leverage.