Bitcoin (BTC) Price May Soon Face Downward Pressure As Whales Begin Moving Their Holdings to Exchanges

The price of Bitcoin has been moving mostly sideways over the past week, briefly flirting with the $87,000 level on Thursday, March 20.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has been facing difficulties in breaking out of a specific trading range despite previous reports suggesting an impending breakout. As Bitcoin hovers around $87,000, new on-chain analysis from CryptoQuant suggests that the crypto giant might be at risk of downward pressure in the coming weeks.

On-chain analyst at CryptoQuant, known as EgyHash on the platform, highlighted a concerning trend: the increasing activity of Bitcoin whales on major exchanges. This observation is based on changes in the "Exchange Whale Ratio."

This indicator measures the ratio between the sum of the top 10 largest exchange inflows and the total exchange inflow. The 10 largest exchange inflows are from whale addresses—entities with substantial cryptocurrency holdings, granting them significant market influence.

This Exchange Whale Ratio provides insight into the activity of this investor class relative to other investors in the cryptocurrency market. A high value for this metric suggests that the 10 largest exchange inflows are cumulatively larger than the incoming transfers from the rest of the market. Conversely, when the Exchange Whale Ratio is low, it implies that whales contribute a relatively healthy part of the funds flowing into exchanges.

According to the Quicktake analyst, the Bitcoin Exchange Whale Ratio has reached levels last seen in the previous year. The chart below shows this metric has been increasing since December 2024 and recently hit a high of over 0.6 in the past week—the highest reading since September 2024.

Typically, higher levels of exchange inflows tend to exert downward pressure on the value of the world’s leading cryptocurrency as these platforms facilitate selling services.

As seen in the chart above, whenever the Bitcoin Exchange Whale Ratio increases, the price of the crypto giant tends to decrease shortly after. This aligns with the broader market narrative that sustained selling activity can lower prices, especially when considering the role of large investors in price movements.

Therefore, the sustained rise in the Exchange Whale Ratio could be a bearish signal for the price of Bitcoin as it indicates that large investors might be pulling out of the market to sell their coins.

Moreover, whales transferring their assets to exchanges can trigger a sell-off cascade as other investor cohorts often monitor their trades due to their significant market influence. Ultimately, the selling pressure that might result from the rising Exchange Whale Ratio could threaten Bitcoin’s future trajectory.