Bitcoin’s surge to $106,000 earlier this week has been primarily driven by robust spot market demand, with Coinbase seeing net buying pressure of $45 million per day, according to Glassnode’s latest report.
The rally, which began after the king cryptocurrency dipped to just below $75,000 in early April, has been marked by strong accumulation phases, exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows, and a cooling of sell-side pressure, pointing to sustained bullish momentum despite recent profit-taking by long-term holders.
Spot Demand Outpaces Derivatives
Unlike previous rallies fueled by leveraged speculation, this latest uptrend has been characterized by organic sport market accumulation.
According to the Glassnode report , BTC changed hands heavily in the $93,000 to $95,000 range, which is now acting as a key support level as it coincides with the cost basis of traders who entered the market within the last 155 days.
The price has respected this range amid sideways accumulation, reinforcing the “stair-stepping” structure visible on the Cost Basis Distribution heatmap.
Meanwhile, derivatives markets lagged, with perpetual futures open interest dropping 10%, from 370,000 BTC to 336,000 BTC, possibly indicating a substantial short squeeze as bears were flushed out.
However, funding rates remain neutral, reflecting a lack of excessive long-side leverage, something which Glassnode’s experts believe is a sign the rally could have more room to run.
Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows also played an important role, peaking at $389 million on April 25 before tapering to around $58 million per day. Coinbase, a preferred exchange for U.S. institutional investors, recorded consistent buying. At the same time, the sell pressure on its global counterpart, Binance, eased from $71 million per day in March to just $9 million, suggesting investors were actively buying the dip.
Long-Term Holders Cash In, But Demand Remains Strong
Despite the rally, long-term Bitcoin holders have started taking profits, as CryptoQuant analyst Avocado Onchain noted in a May 15 report.
According to them, the Binary Coin Days Destroyed (CDD) metric, which tracks dormant coins being moved, has risen to 0.6. While it shows these holders are offloading dormant BTC for profit, the metric has not reached the 0.8 zone seen during previous bull market highs.
Glassnode’s own data corroborates this trend, showing that short-term holder (STH) realized profits are spiking to nearly +3 standard deviations above the 90-day average. However, the analytics firm cautioned that profit-taking has not yet reached exhaustion levels, since in past rallies, higher deviations closer to +5 were needed to deplete demand and mark local tops.
