Buying pressure weakens across BTC, ETH as volume metrics show sustained declines
Buying pressure in the crypto market is weakening simultaneously in terms of price action, derivatives activity, and on-chain indicators. According to CryptoQuant’s analysis, Bitcoin is still struggling to sustain the $87,000-$90,000 level.
According to analyst Mignolet, the slowdown in buying has been evident since late August, which kick-started a spell of declining futures volume, falling active address counts, and a boost in exchange inflows.
The trend is similar to patterns last seen during the late stages of the 2021 cycle, when the market flipped completely bearish, and Bitcoin fell from $57,000 to as low as $35,000. Mignolet said active address metrics, which correlate with over-the-counter activity and on-chain engagement, have exponentially cooled down
Crypto market buying pressure is in free-fall mode, sentiment still on fear
According to data from CryptoQuant charts shared by Mignolet, taker buy volume on Binance peaked during the mid-2021 rally at levels near $15 billion, coinciding with Bitcoin trading between $60,000 and $65,000.
But during the current cycle, Bitcoin’s price pushed toward the $90,000 region around the same time, yet Binance taker buy volume failed to revisit prior highs. BTC’s October peaks saw volumes hovering closer to $10 billion to $11 billion, and it has been declining since August, with no sustained recovery visible on the charts.
Bitcoin Taker Buy Volume chart. Source: CryptoQuant
The chart also marked an “orange zone” period, where a meaningful reversal in volume would be expected if a new expansion phase were underway. Yet, buying activity continued to weaken after that zone, while price advanced further. Mignolet said this behavior signals a final distribution phase and the end of a renewed accumulation cycle.
“The market will require time to recover. Whether the traditional four-year cycle has broken remains uncertain, but even if it has, that question is not particularly relevant in the current phase,” the analyst surmised.
Bitcoin active addresses are going down, hodl or sell?
Bitcoin’s active address count, which is the number of unique addresses participating in transactions, dropped from a 3-year high seen at the end of 2024 to just over 800,000 in December this year.
Active addresses peaked above 1.15 million during last year’s “Trump market,” in late 2017 and early 2021. Looking at the charts in 2025, Bitcoin’s advance toward $90,000 failed to reach those levels, and active addresses moved in closer to the 800,000 range, with the 30-day moving average sloping downward.
“Active address metrics can be closely linked to OTC activity on-chain, and this slowdown is a clear indication that overall market participation and vitality are fading,” Mignolet explained.
More evidence of cooling demand appears in exchange inflow data on Bitcoin and Ethereum transfers. On November 24, when Bitcoin traded at $88,438, Coinbase recorded seven-day cumulative inflows of $21.026 billion, while Binance saw inflows of approximately $15.279 billion.
By December 21, when Bitcoin’s price edged slightly higher to $88,635, Coinbase inflows dropped to $7.763 billion over seven days, a decline of nearly 63%. Binance inflows also fell to $10.259 billion over the same period.
The king coin also encountered its strongest spell of selling pressure in the past three years, according to Joao Wedson, founder and chief executive of analytics platform Alphractal. In a post on X, Wedson mentioned that sellers have gained control after recent attempts to push prices higher.
Bitcoin briefly rallied above $90,000 on Monday, reaching an intraday high of $90,536 on Bitstamp, but failed to hold those levels. At the time of writing, Bitcoin has shed 2.5% from its value over the past 24 hours, trading around $87,500.
Second largest crypto by market, Ethereum, also failed to keep its upper boundary channel price of $3,000, and once the lower channel support was broken, a correction began to unfold, taking it back to $2,900. Its immediate support is near $2,708, while a more significant zone for bulls set up camp is around $2,406.
According to data from Coinglass, total crypto market liquidations in the last day reached approximately $250 million, a 27% uptick from the previous 24 hours.
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