Exchange Netflow
Glossary · Whales & On-Chain
Exchange netflow measures coins moving onto exchanges minus coins moving off over a set window. Positive netflow means more supply arriving on exchanges — potential sell-side pressure; negative netflow means coins leaving for wallets, often read as holding intent. It works as a supply gauge, not a timing tool.
"Coins walking onto an exchange are coins someone's getting ready to sell — usually."
Netflow = coins in minus coins out across an exchange's tagged wallets, usually daily. Baselines matter: BTC sees a few thousand coins of routine flow every day, so a 20,000 BTC inflow day means something and a 2,000 one doesn't. Read the 7- and 30-day trend, not single prints, and note the venue — inflow to a derivatives exchange is often collateral being posted, not coins queued for sale.
The classic misread is shorting one big inflow print. Custody rotations, ETF settlement, and mislabelled wallets all fake it, and by the time an alert reaches you the coins may already be sold. Netflow is backdrop, not trigger. The version that pays is divergence: price grinding higher while netflow stays firmly positive means the rally is being sold into — that's when longs stop adding, hopefully before the market makes the point for them.
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Questions
- What is Exchange Netflow in crypto trading?
- Exchange netflow measures coins moving onto exchanges minus coins moving off over a set window. Positive netflow means more supply arriving on exchanges — potential sell-side pressure; negative netflow means coins leaving for wallets, often read as holding intent. It works as a supply gauge, not a timing tool.
- How would a trader say it?
- Coins walking onto an exchange are coins someone's getting ready to sell — usually.
Part of the Crypto Jargon glossary — every term, decoded the way a trader would say it.
Crypto Jargon
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