Bitcoin Demand in the US is Increasing, But There’s a Catch

The demand for bitcoin (BTC) in the United States has been increasing following Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s comments at last week’s Jackson Hole symposium. However, this increase has not extended to the rest of the crypto market.

According to a CryptoQuant report, BTC rallied on the back of rising investor interest in the U.S., but the overall Bitcoin demand growth is at low levels and has remained negative over the last few weeks.

Bitcoin Rallies Amid Increased Demand

The increase in Bitcoin demand from U.S. investors was evident in the spike in the Coinbase Premium, which surged to 0.11%, its highest level since July. The rise of this metric indicates that the local trading platform is seeing higher demand from U.S. investors than exchanges outside the country.

CryptoQuant said it was a sign that BTC had begun to flow from non-U.S. trading platforms to Coinbase, a movement usually seen during bull markets and an indication of an upward trend in bitcoin’s price.

The Inter-exchange Flow Pulse (IFP) metric, which measures the one-year cumulative sum of BTC net flows between Coinbase and other exchanges, also rallied as an indication that the asset was flowing into the U.S.-based crypto platform in response to the price premium and higher demand in the U.S.

In addition, bitcoin demand in the perpetual futures market increased alongside Open Interest. OI spiked by roughly 10,000 BTC to 276,000 BTC, signaling that traders were opening new long positions and buy orders dominated sell orders.

Apparent Demand Still Negative

Amid the increased demand for Bitcoin in the U.S., the price of the underlying recorded a 6% uptick, moving from $60,000 to $65,000, its highest level since August 2. Despite this rally, investors did not engage in significant profit-taking. This was seen in realized profits amounting to $536 million, a far cry from the multi-billion dollar figures recorded at local market tops this year.

Moreover, Apparent bitcoin Demand 30-day growth has declined from 496,000 BTC in early April to a negative state of 36,000 BTC. The Apparent Demand is the difference between the daily total bitcoin block subsidy and the daily change in the number of BTC not moved in a year or more.

CryptoQuant insists that the crypto market needs an increased apparent bitcoin demand before prices can fully recover and rally to new highs.