Bitcoin Outflows Hit $1.6B as Exchanges See Largest Withdrawal Since April
On Wednesday, centralized exchanges experienced a significant net outflow of over 17,000 BTC, valued at more than $1.6 billion at the prevailing market price of $98,600, according to Glassnode data shared by Andrew Dragosch, head of research at Bitwise.
This marks the largest single-day Bitcoin withdrawal from exchanges since April 2024, a sign that institutional investors may be accumulating. “Whales are buying this dip,” Dragosch posted on X, emphasizing that large Bitcoin outflows typically indicate long-term holding strategies, which is considered a bullish signal.
It’s worth noting that while on-chain data is widely used to gauge market sentiment, large outflows can sometimes be the result of internal wallet reorganizations by exchanges.
Coinbase saw the biggest movement, with over 15,000 BTC in net withdrawals, according to Dragosch. Data from Timechainindex.com revealed that the exchange split more than 20,000 BTC from four large addresses into 60 smaller wallets, which suggests major acquisitions—potentially by Bitcoin ETFs or MicroStrategy.
“We are highly confident that these transactions are associated with cold storage,” Glassnode told CoinDesk, supporting the speculation that institutions are moving Bitcoin off exchanges for long-term custody.
Additional on-chain data from CryptoQuant confirmed that crypto exchanges collectively saw a negative net flow of 47,000 BTC on Wednesday, with 15,800 BTC leaving Coinbase alone.
Despite Bitcoin briefly dropping below $96,800 during late U.S. trading hours on Wednesday, prices rebounded early Thursday following remarks from Eric Trump, son of President Donald Trump, who encouraged World Liberty Financial—a crypto platform linked to the Trump family—to make its first Bitcoin investment.
