Over the past week, Bitcoin has been experiencing an intense movement as prices slid sharply from around $84,000 to around $60,000, representing one of the largest weekly declines in the present market. Currently, based on live market data, Bitcoin’s price has rebounded slightly to around $70,000, indicating some market resilience.
Institutions Pull Back: Bitcoin’s Risk Remains In Red Zone Despite Rebound
According to a CryptoQuant analyst, Amr Taha, the recent on-chain and institutional flow data are signaling a risk-off warning on Bitcoin’s price action, as different classes of investors continue to reduce their market exposure. This caution-themed data has emerged from three key metrics, namely, the exchange-traded fund (ETF) outflows, which depict the institutional behavior, the Bitcoin UTXO Exchange Inflow, and the multi-asset inflow on the Binance exchange.
Generally, positive netflows into Bitcoin Spot ETFs are a bullish situation, indicating increasing buying pressure from US institutional investors. However, recent developments paint an opposite situation as withdrawals are on the rise, especially from BlackRock’s IBIT, which is the market’s most dominant player.
Analyst Amr Taha stated that IBIT experienced a massive outflow on two different occasions in the last week. The first event occurred on the 2nd of February, when investors redeemed $4.7 billion, and then on the 5th, with $7.7 billion, making over $12.4 billion in total. Also, Grayscale’s GBTC was said to have recorded a $2.1 billion outflow during this period.
Exchange Activity Reinforces Risk-Off Behavior
Using data from the UTXO Exchange Inflow SMA 7D, Ama Taha also highlighted an increase in Bitcoin inflow to exchanges over the week. On February 4, the BTC exchange inflow for shark/dophlin wallets reached over 14,900 BTC, before climbing to 20,800 BTC the following day. This represented the first time this metric touched 22,800 since October, when BTC was trading above $122,000.
However, as lots of Bitcoin were sent to exchanges, stablecoins like USDT are being pulled out. On February 5, data from the Binance exchange inflows show Bitcoin’s netflows increased to $727 million, reaching levels last seen in mid-November. Meanwhile, USDT recorded negative netflows totaling around $450 million.
These developments show that institutions are reducing their holdings, while retail holders are also exiting, creating a “risk off” environment that prefers safety in a very cautious market. While this does not confirm a further market downturn, it suggests a dominant heavy bearish sentiment among investor classes. At press time, the premier cryptocurrency trades at $68,513 after a 15.94% decline in the past seven days.
Featured image from Pexels, chart from Tradingview
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