Bitcoin’s buy-side activity just flashed its strongest reading in nearly two years, signaling a decisive shift in trader sentiment and adding momentum to the market’s latest recovery push.
The key on-chain metric - taker buy-sell ratio - spiked to 1.17 across all major exchanges, its highest level since early 2023. The surge coincided with a notable improvement in macro liquidity conditions and a major distribution expansion from a top U.S. brokerage.
The combination suggests Bitcoin’s current cycle may be far from over, even as broader markets continue to face pockets of macro stress.
What Happened
The taker buy-sell ratio, which tracks aggressive market buys versus market sells in perpetual futures, jumped above 1.15 for the first time since January 2023, according to new data from CryptoQuant.
A reading above 1 indicates that traders are lifting asks at a faster rate than they are hitting bids, reflecting stronger buy-side initiative.
Yesterday’s 1.17 print marks the most forceful single-day skew toward buyers recorded in the current bull cycle.
Analysts typically observe this type of order-flow dominance in early- or mid-cycle expansions, when liquidity begins accelerating rather than tightening.
The spike also followed a major shift at Vanguard, which enabled trading of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs for more than 50 million brokerage accounts after previously blocking access.
This change is expected to widen ETF distribution and support inflows into products such as the IBIT fund.
At the same time, key global liquidity indices have begun to rebound from their tightest levels of the year.
Measures such as the U.S. financial conditions index tracked by the Federal Reserve show easing pressure, historically a backdrop that supports multi-month Bitcoin uptrends.
Why It Matters
A sharp rise in buy-side order flow during a liquidity inflection often signals that institutional participants are re-entering the market.
ETF adoption has already reshaped Bitcoin’s demand base in 2024–2025, and expanded retail access through large brokers is expected to amplify this structural shift.
Stronger liquidity conditions also reduce forced-selling pressure across risk assets, giving speculative markets more room to trend higher.
Previous cycles show that Bitcoin’s largest rallies typically begin in the early stages of liquidity recovery rather than at peak euphoria.
This backdrop suggests the current rally may not be approaching a terminal phase. Instead, structural ETF flows, renewed institutional participation, and improving liquidity point toward continued expansion - provided macro risks remain contained.
Still, analysts caution that global vulnerabilities remain.
Japan-related financial stress and an incomplete reversal of broader market risk indicators mean systemic threats have not fully dissipated.
For now, buy-side conviction is strengthening, liquidity is loosening, and Bitcoin’s market structure continues to align with the early stretch of a maturing bull cycle.
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