Bitcoin Bearish Momentum Losing Steam? Analyst Flags Key Metric

An analyst has highlighted how the Bitcoin Inter-exchange Flow Pulse has continued to be in a bearish phase recently, but its value is starting to flatten out.

In a new post on X, CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn has talked about the latest trend in the Bitcoin Inter-exchange Flow Pulse (IFP), which is an on-chain indicator that tracks the BTC flows occurring between centralized spot and derivatives exchanges.

When the value of this metric rises, it means more of the cryptocurrency is flowing from spot to derivatives platforms. Such a trend implies speculative interest in BTC is going up.

On the other hand, the indicator witnessing a decline suggests traders may be taking a lower risk approach as they are reducing their transactions to derivatives exchanges.

Now, here is the chart shared by Maartunn that shows the trend in the Bitcoin IFP and its 90-day moving average (MA) over the past decade:

As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin IFP was on the rise during the last few months of 2024, but in 2025, a reversal occurred in the indicator. Flows to derivatives exchanges started declining and before long, the metric slipped under its 90-day MA.

A cross below this MA is considered to signal the start of either a bear market or a correction phase for the cryptocurrency. Over the course of 2025, the signal maintained as the IFP continued to go down and failed to find a break above its 90-day MA. Interestingly, Bitcoin still rallied during the second half of the year to a new all-time high (ATH).

Back in 2021, a similar pattern emerged as BTC observed another leg of the bull run in the second half of that year alongside a bearish signal on the IFP. From the chart, it’s visible that this previous IFP bearish transition remained all the way until the bottom of the 2022 bear market, where it flattened out before reversing up.

A similar pattern was also observed during the 2018 bear market. As such, given the historical precedence, it’s possible that Bitcoin might find a bottom alongside a reversal in the IFP this time around as well.

The early signs of such a reversal may even potentially be beginning to appear, as the indicator has been switching to a sideways trajectory recently. “The Inter-Exchange Flow Pulse is still in a bearish phase, but it’s starting to flatten out,” noted the analyst.

Naturally, it’s still too early to tell whether derivatives flows are witnessing a real trend shift, so it only remains to be seen how the IFP will develop in the near future. “A shift here could signal changing capital flows,” said Maartunn. “Watch this metric closely in the coming weeks.”

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $67,300, up 1.3% over the last week.