MorenoDV_
The Sellers May Be Losing Control — Aggressive Buyers Are Returning to BTC and ETH
Aggressive Buyers Are Returning to BTC and ETH. But Is It Real Demand? After a prolonged period of seller-driven price discovery, both BTC and ETH are flashing early signs of demand returning through derivatives flow. When Net Taker Volume flips upward after sustained negativity, it’s often not “new long-term conviction” at first, it’s usually positioning stress: shorts getting squeezed, hedges getting lifted, and late sellers running out of urgency. Net Taker Volume measures the imbalance between aggressive buyers and sellers in derivatives markets. Because takers cross the spread, this metric reveals who is actively driving price discovery. -- BTC -- BTC has spent several months under persistent negative Net Taker Volume, indicating sustained aggressive selling across derivatives markets. This regime coincided with the recent drawdown and deleveraging phase. However, the latest prints show flows starting to turn positive, suggesting that seller dominance may be fading. The key signal here isn’t “green bars = bullish.” It’s that the regime may be shifting from distribution to stabilization. Historically, shifts from prolonged negative taker pressure toward positive territory often precede short covering rallies and liquidity-driven rebounds, particularly after periods of forced selling. -- ETH -- ETH behaves differently because derivatives flow is often distorted by its structural role in DeFi. ETH is widely used as collateral, and a meaningful chunk of positioning expresses as long spot + short perps (delta-neutral / basis / yield strategies). That creates a “background radiation” of structural sell pressure in perps, even when the asset is healthy. So for ETH, positive Net Taker Volume is less about “investors suddenly love ETH” and more about momentum bursts where hedges temporarily lose control, short squeezes, breakout continuation, or reflexive rallies, before systematic hedging reappears.