Over $44 million in short positions were wiped out on Binance in a single hour Monday — the largest one-hour short liquidation since February 6 — yet the price surge it helped trigger drew little enthusiasm from actual buyers. Bitcoin climbed to a weekly high of $71,801 on Binance during the US market session, pushed higher largely by forced closures of short positions rather than new capital entering the market.

Aggregated open interest across Bitcoin futures fell by roughly 9,700 BTC — a 3.5% drop — over 13 hours while prices rose. When open interest falls during a rally, it typically means traders are exiting positions, not adding them. That’s not the signature of a confident bull run. The Coinbase premium, which tracks whether US buyers are paying above or below the global average price, stayed negative throughout the move. Reports indicate limited spot demand from US participants during the entire rally window.

The broader picture looks just as thin. According to crypto analyst Darkfost, March is on pace to record the lowest Binance spot volume since the third quarter of 2023 — around $52 billion, compared to $88 billion that September. That September figure itself came during a period widely characterized as a bear market. Exchange flow data tells a similar story: seven-day cumulative flows on Binance hit their lowest point since 2024, based on data reported by analyst Arab Chain. Coinbase flows held relatively steady by comparison, suggesting longer-term holders are maintaining activity while shorter-term traders pull back.

The trigger for Monday’s price action was a news report that US President Donald Trump had paused plans for military strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure, citing diplomatic progress. Iran’s foreign ministry quickly denied that any such talks had taken placed. BTC still rallied on the headline.

One data point stands apart from the rest. A market analyst identified a record spike in what’s called whale inflow momentum — a measure of how fast large amounts of Bitcoin are being moved onto exchanges. The current reading of 74 is higher than any point in the past 11 years. The last time it exceeded this level was in 2015, when it hit 124. High whale inflows don’t automatically signal selling. But reports note the elevated pace points to aggressive capital rotation and hedging among large holders, which could make Bitcoin’s price more sensitive to short-term swings in the weeks ahead. For now, the rally stalled around the $71,000 to $72,000 range, with no clear indication that the demand needed to push meaningfully beyond it has arrived.