BTC Retreats as Digital Assets Sell Off: Markets Wrap
Bitcoin breaks below $48,000 as daily exchange volumes and network activity remain stagnant
![article-image](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblockworks-co.imgix.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F06%2FWarhold.jpeg&w=1920&q=75)
A piece by WARHODL whose work was on display at the Bitcoin 2021 Art Gallery
key takeaways
- Daily exchange volumes are down from the highs seen in May of 2021
- Activity on the Bitcoin network has been flat to down throughout 2021
The number of BTC wallet addresses holding 10 or more BTC has been in a downtrend since the end of 2020.
Daily exchange volume has yet to return to levels seen earlier in 2021 as they hover in the $25 billion to $50 billion range.
Active addresses on the Bitcoin network are down from 1.2 million at the beginning of 2021 to 995,000 today.
$120.87 million of long positions have been liquidated over the last 24 hours as a result of today’s BTC price action.
Latest in Macro:
- S&P 500: 4,786, -0.10%
- NASDAQ: 15,781, -0.56%
- Gold: $1,805, -0.36%
- WTI Crude Oil: $75.99, +0.56%
- 10-Year Treasury: 1.482%, +0.001%
Latest in Crypto:
- BTC: $47,844, -6.70%
- ETH: $3,831, -6.40%
- ETH/BTC: 0.0800, +0.73%
- BTC.D: 39.95%, -0.27%
Declining exchange volume
Daily exchange volume has yet to return to levels seen earlier in 2021 as they hover in the $25 billion to $50 billion range, according to data from The Block.
![](https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-28-at-12.35.49-PM.png)
Stagnant activity on the Bitcoin network
Active addresses on the Bitcoin network are down from 1.2 million at the beginning of 2021 to 995,000 today, according to data from Glassnode.
![](https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/glassnode-studio_bitcoin-number-of-active-addresses-1024x576.png)
While institutional interest was a common narrative over 2021, the number of BTC wallet addresses holding 10 or more BTC has been in a downtrend since the end of 2020, according to data from Glassnode, as smart money took profits into price strength.
![](https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/glassnode-studio_bitcoin-number-of-addresses-with-balance-≥-10-1024x576.png)
“…We are still digesting a large loss of active wallets from China and non-China growth, therefore, [the addition of new wallets needs to be greater than the loss of active wallets from China] to exceed that loss of accounts for the network to re-grow too. Likely a matter of time,” wrote Raoul Pal, founder of Global Macro Investor. “Additionally, I didn’t mention that institutional rebalancing, tax-related selling and hedgies squaring books has also added to year-end weakness. This is more temporary, most likely”.
Liquidations
$120.87 million of long positions have been liquidated over the last 24 hours as a result of today’s BTC price action, according to data from Coinglass.
![](https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bybt_chart-6-5-1024x410.png)
BTC futures open interest sits at $19.22 billion, according to Coinglass, so there are plenty of long side positions that are yet to be liquidated.
![](https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bybt_chart-6-6-1024x420.png)
NFTs
Trading data from OpenSea and Solanalysis of some of the top Solana and Ethereum projects can be found below:
![](https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-28-at-4.03.35-PM-1024x336.png)
![](https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-28-at-4.03.46-PM-1024x350.png)
If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I am looking forward to catching up tomorrow.
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