Bitcoin price has surged above the $57,000 mark, indicating that the dominant cryptocurrency remains in a bullish phase. Accompanying this price rise is a significant increase in risk appetite amongst BTC investors, as various on-chain metrics point to rising speculation and leverage.
According to a recent analysis by on-chain data firm Glassnode, signs of speculation are emerging across capital flows, exchange activity, derivatives markets, and even institutional demand. Their ‘Week on Chain’ newsletter highlights surging inflows into Bitcoin investment vehicles like ETFs, with over 90,000 BTC ($5.7 billion) migrating into these products in February alone.
Exchange deposit volumes have also hit record highs, with daily inflows reaching $5.57 billion last week. Breaking this down further, roughly $2.1 billion of these deposits came from ‘short-term holders’ who typically buy and sell within a 2-4 month timeframe. This cohort is seen as a proxy for speculative trading behavior on exchanges.
Futures and options open interest is approaching all-time highs as well. As of last week, Bitcoin futures OI totaled $21 billion across major exchanges like CME and Binance. Options markets have also ballooned to $17.5 billion in open contracts. Rising activity in these leveraged markets points to investors increasingly using derivatives to capitalize on Bitcoin’s price moves.
The surge in risk-taking is somewhat contrarian to traditional markets which have struggled for direction in 2024 so far. Since last October, Bitcoin has strongly outperformed equities and gold. Its over 30% year-to-date gains stand out versus other major asset classes. This divergence in momentum has amplified speculative flows rotating into the leading cryptocurrency.
Glassnode also notes short-term holders on exchanges are now depositing over 1% of their total supply daily. The last time such a large proportion of their balances were sent to trading venues was during the March 2020 crypto crash. Significantly, much of the action in futures is still driven by short liquidations rather than longs, hinting that directional shorts remain overly bearish on Bitcoin.
With the underlying market momentum supported by robust capital inflows, and an increasing appetite for leverage and speculation, it appears the cryptosphere’s bull run still has room to run. However, stretched short-term positioning and elevated leverage may present risks of a correction if confidence in the uptrend were to falter over the coming months.
