Bitcoin Up 1.4% as Exchange Reserves Hit 3-Year Low

By Stacy Elliott

The Bitcoin price appears to have stabilized above the $65,500 mark. And there's more good news: Exchange reserves have hit a 3-year low, according to CryptoQuant data.

That means there's likely reduced selling pressure on the horizon and that Bitcoin investors are switching back into accumulation mode after a massive wave of profit taking.

In the past two weeks, large holders—or whales—have sold a staggering $1.2 billion worth of their BTC. A portion of those sellers have been Bitcoin miners, who are feeling increased pressure to sell their holdings to offset reduced revenues.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is changing hands for $66,216 and has seen a 1% gain in the past day according to CoinGecko data. It's still well out of range of its all-time high above $73,000, which it last saw on March 14.

There's reason to believe that BTC remains rangebound, as the current market structure favors arbitrage traders instead of directional traders, according to a recent Glassnode report.

But it's also true that roughly 87% of Bitcoin holders are in profit.

"Currently, the average coin holds an unrealized profit of around +120%, typical of previous markets trading around the previous cycle ATH," the analysts wrote. "The MVRV Ratio remains above its yearly baseline, suggesting that the macro uptrend remains intact."

The Market Value to Realized Value is used to compare the market value of an asset, like Bitcoin,  to its realized value. Generally speaking, when the MVRV is above 1—as it is now at 2.18, according to Glassnode—that means holders would profit if they sold their coins. The higher the value, the more likely it is that potential profit-taking could lead to a correction.

And sure enough, the MVRV is working its way back down from nearing 3 back in May, according to Glassnode data. Bitcoin sellers are still selling, but not at rates that will tank the price.

"This infers that HODLers are still divesting, and demand is sufficient to absorb the sell-side pressure but not large enough to push market prices higher," the analysts wrote. "This suggests that the market structure is more beneficial for range traders and arbitrage strategies rather than directional and trend trading strategies."

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