On-chain data gathered by CryptoQuant indicates that Bitcoin (BTC) is moving from Binance to Coinbase.According to a recent note from the research firm, Coinbase has seen a rise in reserves of approximately 12,000 BTC, while Binance has seen a reduction of 5,000 BTC.
“The decrease in Bitcoin reserves on Binance appears to be due to retail outflows,” Bradley Park, a Web 3 analyst at CryptoQuant wrote to CoinDesk in a note.
“The market is still nervous about the recent legal implications against Binance,” Greta Yuan, head of research at Hong Kong-based digital-asset platform VDX said in a note to CoinDesk. “In the short term, we will see more users move funds to compliant or licensed exchanges for peace of mind.”
“Coinbase has stood the test of time,” she said.
Fund flows are also being impacted, according to some experts, by Binance’s recent deal with the US Department of Justice, which removed the final obstacle to obtaining permission for a spot bitcoin ETF.
“With this plea deal, the expectations for a spot Bitcoin ETF might have increased to 100% as the industry will be forced to follow the rules that TradFi firms must follow,” crypto services provider Matrixport wrote.
A 1,000 BTC withdrawal from Coinbase was discovered by CryptoQuant, and Park proposed that the transaction was an “institutional over-the-counter (OTC) trade and can be seen as anticipation of approval of ETFs.”
The data from CryptoQuant indicates a consistent downward trend in bitcoin exchange reserves over the course of the year, which is interpreted as positive news.On the other hand, other analysts claim that investors are retaining their assets elsewhere and that there is less faith in centralized exchanges since that FTX collapsed last year.