According to a report published by Coinbase, Bitcoin's recent price increases may be limited by an increase in sell orders on the exchange.
Market depth data from the platform showed a significant imbalance between sell offers and buy requests, with an increase in the number of sell offers.
Analysts David Duong and David Han from Coinbase noted that this increase in total Bitcoin sell orders is particularly concentrated between 5% and 10% of the mid-price on the exchange. This concentration reportedly limits a more significant price increase.
“Data suggests that there may be some profit-taking at current levels and/or market participants may be more willing to sell on price appreciation, which could limit upward price movements,” analysts said in today's report.
Duong and Han also pointed to data from Arkham Intelligence that points to a specific factor driving the recent selling pressure on Bitcoin. “Mt. Gox refunds continue to be a source of pressure after approximately 50,000 BTC were distributed to exchanges since July 5, leaving the trustee with a balance of 90,300 BTC,” they explained.
However, they added that the digital asset has found some relief from a shift in the US political environment. This shift allowed the coin to catch up with the sharp US dollar devaluation in July, with the multilateral DXY index down over 2% year to date. Since Bitcoin is generally valued in US dollars, it tends to benefit from a weaker US dollar.
*This is not investment advice.