Bitcoin Exchanges See Three Straight Months Of Withdrawals For First Time Ever

On-chain data shows exchanges have seen net Bitcoin withdrawals during the past three months, the longest streak in the asset’s history.

An analyst on X explained that the total number of Bitcoin exchange withdrawals has been more than the deposits recently. The number of deposits and withdrawals and the number of such transactions are referred to here.

All transfers on the network that go from a self-custodial wallet to a central exchange entity would count as deposit transactions, while those that go the opposite way would be withdrawals.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin exchange withdrawals and deposits over the last few years:

As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin exchange withdrawal transactions have been higher than the deposit transactions for around three months. This streak is a record for the cryptocurrency, as deposits have usually surged back above withdrawals before long whenever this pattern forms.

There could be multiple interpretations of what this unusual run of withdrawals might say about the market. The analyst has listed a few hypotheses that may explain this trend.

First and perhaps the most obvious one could be that the holders choose to hold their Bitcoin for extended periods instead of participating in trading or selling (which they generally use exchanges for).

The second explanation may be that the investors have become more cautious of central entities, so they opt for the security that self-custodial wallets provide. This would make sense in light of several bankruptcies the sector has seen during the past year, where known names like FTX have gone down.

Another hypothesis is just the reverse of the first one: the withdrawals are normal, but the deposits are muted, a result of holders not wanting to sell their coins through these platforms, so they aren’t making that many deposits anymore.

Finally, the analyst notes, “given the recent regulatory changes in the US, investors prefer to keep their assets off exchanges to avoid potential complications.” Binance, the largest exchange in the world in terms of trading volume, has particularly been under fire lately.

Another analyst has looked at the individual exchange reserves (the total amount of Bitcoin sitting in a platform’s wallets) of Binance and Coinbase in a CryptoQuant Quicktake post, to see how they have shifted over the years.

Binance had been seeing growing Bitcoin reserves for a good chunk of the past year (despite factors like the bear market), but the exchange has been seeing net withdrawals recently.

Coinbase, on the other hand, has been seeing withdrawals for quite a while now, implying that the platform has constantly been bleeding coins.

Bitcoin has remained stagnant recently as the asset is still priced around the $25,900 level.