Spot market conditions improved after months of weakness, with U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs moving from persistent outflows to modest inflows. Nonetheless, the report cautions that demand has not yet fully recovered, with ETF flows and purchases by Bitcoin cash companies such as Strategy (STR) remaining well below levels seen earlier this year.
Although bitcoin’s rebound helped lift market sentiment after a tough second quarter, Bitfinex warned that the recovery was “not yet healed.”
Bitcoin currently accounts for nearly 67% of spot crypto trading volume, up from about 50% a year ago, according to Bitfinex. This change suggests that investors continue to favor bitcoin over smaller tokens, a sign that traders remain on the defensive rather than adopting broad risk-taking.
“Summer Sleep”
Data from K33 Research paints a similar picture.
Head of research Vetle Lunde said institutional participation continued to fade, with CME Bitcoin futures open interest falling to its lowest level since 2023. Offshore perpetual futures positioning remained largely unchanged, indicating that speculative traders have been reluctant to add leverage despite Bitcoin’s recent gains.
Spot trading activity also remained slow. According to K33, bitcoin’s thirty-day trading volume is only 62% of its annual average, and the end of July has consistently been the weakest period of the year. Average daily spot volume over the past week was about $2.3 billion, hovering near yearly lows even as prices recovered.
K33 described the backdrop as a “promising and typical summer sleep”.
