Key Points
- Bitcoin has been consolidating near $68K, with a slight dip to $66K due to increased exchange inflow.
- Whales have been trimming their long positions, indicating a decrease in whale-long positions.
Bitcoin (BTC) has been hovering around the $68K mark since October 16, following a surge early in the week driven by robust spot market demand.
However, it seems some holders have been cashing in on the price rally, as indicated by spikes in exchange inflow.
Bitcoin’s Slight Dip
This rise in exchange inflow means more BTC was being moved into centralized exchanges for sale, potentially explaining the minor dip to $66K observed on Thursday.
Interestingly, this slight pullback to $66.6K was also marked by whales reducing their long positions.
This trend was highlighted by a slight decrease in the Whale vs Retail Delta on Binance exchanges.
This metric tracks whale accumulation relative to retail traders. Its decline suggests a reduction in whale-long positions, a trend that aligns with BTC price pullbacks.
In other words, the recent reading showed that smart money on Binance was slightly derisking, possibly fearing that the drop could extend beyond $66K.
Week’s Pump Reinforces Bullish Outlook
Despite this, the week’s pump has reinforced the bullish ‘Uptober’ outlook after a disappointing start to the month.
The risk-on and bullish sentiment was also apparent among US spot ETF products, which have been on a four-day winning streak since October 11.
On Thursday, these products recorded $470.48 million net inflows.
According to QCP Capital, a Singapore-based crypto trading firm, these strong flows could push BTC towards its March all-time high.
“The strong and growing inflows may be a leading indicator of further rallies as BTC heads back to its all-time high of $73,790,” the firm noted in its daily update.
The trading firm also observed increased buying for long-dated options, particularly those expiring in March 2025.
“The desk saw heavy buying on long-dated 28 Mar options during US trading hours, with 600 contracts at 120k strike. This signifies that optimistic, long-shot buyers are returning amid this rally,” QCP Capital added.
This suggests that options market traders are bullish on BTC price prospects in Q4 2024 and Q1 2025. However, short-term market uncertainty remains due to the earnings season and the upcoming US elections.
Considering BTC’s positive correlation with US stocks, the earnings season could influence asset price action, especially MicroStrategy’s earnings, scheduled for October 30th.
The liquidation heatmap showed significant short positions were building at around $68.6K and long positions at $66.4K.
Market makers typically use these liquidity clusters to manipulate prices and tend to steer BTC price direction towards them. Therefore, these could be key levels to monitor in the short term.
