Data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment shows that non-stablecoin digital assets have seen historically low levels of weekly trading volume of late, with Bitcoin and Ethereum, in particular, dropping to the second-lowest threshold since 2019.

In a weekly on-chain newsletter, Glassnode noted that transfer volume settled across the Bitcoin network has declined by a large margin since the highs seen in 2021. Overall, transfer volumes fell 85.5% from a cycle high of $13.1 billion to a low of $1.9 billion.

Exchange volumes also saw similar declines, with deposit volume declining 91.8% from a May 2021 peak of $4.2 billion to a low of $343 million today. 

“It is important to highlight that volume throughput is very low right now, indicating an arguably lacklustre inflow of new demand, as well as growing dominance by low volume ordinal/inscription transactions. However, this is matched by an existing holder base who can be argued are increasingly price insensitive,” noted the analysts.

Given the current market scenario, Glassnode anticipates a large market move and increased volatility for the leading digital asset.

Meanwhile, institutional investors continued to pull funds from crypto investment products, which recorded their fifth consecutive week of outflows. According to a May 22 report from CoinShares, digital asset funds saw $32 million in outflows last week, taking the total amount of outflows over the last five weeks to $232 million.