Bitcoin price stability belies market structure concerns

The price of Bitcoin has stabilized near $67,000, but on-chain data suggests a split market structure. The drop in spot volume and open interest indicates that derivatives are still dominant in the market.

CryptoQuant analyst Carmelo_Alemán noted that Bitcoin's daily spot volume fell from 42,026 BTC on March 17 to 35,590 BTC on April 2, marking a 15.31% drop in spot activity over the period. At the same time, open interest fell from $23.33 billion to $21.26 billion, a smaller 8.87% decline.

He also observed that the estimated leverage ratio rose from 0.2207 to about 0.225, suggesting that Bitcoin is becoming less dependent on real buying and selling and more tied to leveraged positions. The same note pointed out that funding rates have remained mostly negative, indicating stronger short positioning in perpetual futures.