Bitcoin surpassed the $60,000 mark again as the broader market witnessed a recovery, but a key indicator shows the expectation of another price fall.

Bitcoin (BTC) surged by 2% in the past 24 hours and is trading at $60,800 at the time of writing. Its daily trading volume increased by 30%, reaching $34.8 billion. Bitcoin’s market cap is currently sitting at the $1.2 trillion border.

According to an X post by CryptoQuant, the surge comes as BTC over-the-counter desk balances for miners have increased by 71.2% over the past three months — rising from 215,000 to 368,000 BTC. this is the first time since June 2022 that the BTC OTC desk balances surpass the 300,000 BTC mark.

This movement usually happens when miners want to sell their holdings in OTC deals rather than cryptocurrency exchanges. The chart shows that the last three major spikes in Bitcoin’s OTC desk balances for miners have exerted major selling pressure on Bitcoin and the crypto market.

An analyst under the alias @EgyHashX noted that “historically, increases in Bitcoin OTC desk balances have been associated with declines in Bitcoin prices.” According to data from Santiment, the Bitcoin supply held by miners has increased by roughly 20,000 BTC — rising from 2.17 million to 2.19 million coins — over the past month. 

On the other hand, data from the market intelligence platforms shows an increase in the retail Bitcoin accumulation. Per Santiment, the asset’s exchange flow dropped from a net inflow of 6,783 BTC on Aug. 17 to a net outflow of 1,006 BTC on Aug. 22.

The chart also shows the number of coins sent to self-custodial wallets is currently bigger than holders trying to sell the asset.