Bitcoin inflows into deposit wallets rise to bear market levels, raising exhaustion fears

Right now, even small price movements are enough to flip sentiment from fear to optimism without changing broader short-term trends.

More than 106,000 BTC flowed into Binance deposit addresses on April 21, with nearly 130,000 more BTC arriving at OKX, volumes not seen since the end of the last bear market, according to on-chain analyst Darkfost.

The timing is worth paying attention to, as Bitcoin has been moving sideways for nearly three months now, and data suggests the market may run out of patience before sellers run out.

What do exchange flows indicate?

To get context with the numbers, Binance averages about 44,000 BTC in daily flows to deposit addresses over the course of the year, and OKX averages about 74,000, meaning Tuesday’s readings were more than double the baselines on both exchanges.

It was Darkfoust clear About what these flows actually represent. When someone decides to sell on an exchange, their Bitcoin usually first goes to the deposit address before the exchange pushes it to its operational wallet. So the height is not noise; It is a relic left by its owners in preparation for sale.

He also said that this shows that traders cannot decide whether they are optimistic about a new uptrend or afraid of losing more money.

But what makes this reading more difficult to interpret as bearish is what Darkfost said alongside it:

“In this environment, even minor price fluctuations are enough to quickly shift market sentiment from extreme fear to strong optimism, while the broader short-term trend remains unchanged.”

He concluded with the line that probably stuck with most people who read it:

You may also like:

“Markets are not always hurt by volatility. Sometimes they are stressed by consolidation.”

Looking at derivatives data from the same 24-hour period, it is He appears More than 112,000 traders lost money totaling about $277 million. The biggest loss was a $6.43 million Bitcoin trade on Hyperliquid.

Total pressure affects BTC

The three-month range did not occur in a vacuum, as BTC essentially tracks geopolitical headlines for weeks. Oil prices ranged from below $70,500 to $75,000 as ceasefire talks began the week of April 14, then rose briefly to $76,000, then spent days hovering between $73,500 and $75,600 before the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz gave them a final push higher.

However, as CryptoPotato reported, the United States and Iran It has been resumed strikes against each other over the weekend after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again. Had Bitcoin for a brief period touched $78,400, its highest level in ten weeks, after Trump’s positive statements about the peace talks, then he returned most of it after Iran. to reject Those claims and military exchanges returned.

Currently, the asset is trading at more than $76,000, up more than 2% in the past seven days, according to CoinGecko data. The rises are more pronounced across longer time frames, with Bitcoin gaining more than 11% over two weeks and 10% in the last 30 days. But it is still about 13% below its level one year ago, and close to 40% below the all-time high of more than $126,000 achieved in October 2025.