Bitcoin (BTC) Has Soared Above $93,000, And On-Chain Data Suggests a Short Squeeze Is in the Works

Bitcoin has soared above $93,000, and on-chain data from Binance and other exchanges suggests a short squeeze is in the works.

Key Insights:

Bitcoin price surged above $93,000, and on-chain data from Binance and other exchanges suggested a short squeeze was in the works.

The crypto market dynamics might be changing as signals from technical charts and various institutional activity showed less selling pressure and more buying strength.

What Happened: Bitcoin price rose above $93,000 on April 23, and on-chain data from Binance showed that the crypto behemoth might be setting up for a short squeeze.

After April 15, the Exchange Whale Ratio, which measured the ratio of large transactions to total exchange volume, fell below 0.4. This implied that whales, the large institutional players, were stepping back from selling. A distribution zone where whales were likely unloading their holdings was around 0.65, which was the ratio’s peak during March 24–April 2nd.

From this point on, the ratio declined steadily, showing that retail investors were becoming the main traders in the market.

As Bitcoin’s price moved up from $83,000 on April 15 to over $93,000 on April 23, this transition was accompanied by less selling from large holders.

Also, the whale ratio decline was accompanied by a lower selling pressure across all exchanges, which created a setup where price could rise with little resistance.

Another metric that signaled decreasing selling activity was the total Bitcoin held on exchanges, also known as exchange reserves. These decreased from 2.57 million BTC to 2.53 million BTC during the same period. This trend started towards the end of March and lasted until April 23.

The decrease in reserves indicates that investors are moving Bitcoin from exchanges to cold storage, which is generally a sign that they do not intend to sell in the near future.

As CryptoQuant noted, this period marks the start of a ‘cold storage trend’ – a term that is often used when coins are leaving exchanges to be stored offline in a more secure manner.

During late March and early April, exchange inflows, or Bitcoin being sent to exchanges, were high, averaging over 40,000 BTC daily. This is typical behavior in a “Capitulation Zone”, where the sellers move their assets to exchanges in order to sell. Inflows peaked at around 60,000 BTC on April 7.

However, inflows dropped to around 20,000 BTC by April 15 and remained low, indicating less holders were planning to sell. U.S. Tax Day also fell on April 15, and that could have been a reason for the earlier inflow spike as investors liquidated assets to pay for their tax obligations.

At the same time, outflows, or Bitcoin being taken out of exchanges, started to rise sharply. On April 22, outflows reached 60,000 BTC. On CryptoQuant charts, this is labeled as an “Accumulation Shift”, meaning that buyers are taking their Bitcoin off exchanges after buying, a behaviour that is typically linked to long-term holding.

It means low inflows and high outflows, which is a flow pattern that indicates growing investor confidence and less sell-side supply.

Additionally, the weekly momentum indicator SOTT on Titan of Crypto’s chart is also flashing green. In the current cycle, this indicator has flipped twice before, once in late 2023 and once again in mid-2024. After the first flip, Bitcoin rose by 172.97%. After the second, it gained 92%.

Just when BTC was hitting $93,000, the most recent flip occurred. The start of strong upward moves has come after previous green flips in the SOTT. The shift of the indicator is often used as a signal of the market building bullish momentum.

The pattern is in line with the current on-chain activity and implies that the market conditions could support further upward price action.