Unlike the 2017-rally, Bitcoin currently indicates strong fundamentals. The growth has been such, over the course of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, that the digital asset has experienced massive capital injection. It is difficult to identify the source at times, as both retail and institutional investments come in a flurry.
However, the growth of a certain type of exchange may indicate the injection of new players into the market.
Bitcoin Fiat-on-ramp exchanges witnesses buyers’ intent
It is one thing for crypto-dominant exchanges such as Binance, Huobi, etc to dominate volumes during a bull run but now, the fiat on-ramp exchanges were experiencing a rising shift as well.
According to recent reports, the buying intensity witnessed by fiat-on-ramp exchanges such as Coinbase, Gemini and Bitstamp, has been outstanding over the past few weeks.
Source: Bitcoinuncharted
The report stated,
“Fiat-on-ramp exchanges’ bitcoin withdrawals have been an order of magnitude larger over the past 4 weeks when compared to the withdrawal volume coming from crypto-only exchanges.”
Besides being supportive of crypto/fiat pairs, rising interest in these exchanges is also more organic since volume manipulation is very little on fiat on-ramps. Crypto dominant exchanges may spike activity even during the bearish rally and the bullish identification is not always clear with such platforms. A higher number of Bitcoin withdrawals on fiat-on-ramps justifies the current bullish narrative and exhibits a positive market sentiment during the present consolidation phase.
Key Takeaways: New Capital Influx?
There are a couple of things that could be taken away from the above shift in trend. The growth of these exchanges is directly linked to the fact that they support fiat transactions for bitcoin. The exchange withdrawals to new entities have surged and mostly only accredited investors deal with USD to access Bitcoin.
Retail investors will mostly buy cryptocurrencies through other digital assets such as USDT or use other crypto trading pairs. The withdrawal size has only increased over the past few weeks now, so new money entering the space, has been rapidly increasing in the recent past.
In fact, retail investors might be taking a break themselves as retail-flow towards some of the popular cryptocurrency sites has cooled off since early January 2021, so the legitimate conclusion is that new institutions are entering the space with the help of fiat.
