Bitcoin’s estimated total demand over the past 30 days has worsened to minus 171,000 BTC.

On Sept. 28 local time, blockchain media outlet Coinpost reported that Darkfost, an analyst at on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant, said bitcoin demand was not improving and was instead deteriorating.

The figure is the combined value of futures-market demand and spot demand. “There is no sign of demand improving, rather the opposite,” Darkfost said. It was an assessment that the demand base in the bitcoin market has weakened over the past month.

Futures-market demand slowdown stood out in the breakdown. Futures demand plunged from 164,000 BTC to 3,000 BTC. Spot demand was minus 174,000 BTC. A key point was that spot demand remained in negative territory even as inflows into spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds stayed firm.

Based on this flow, Darkfost pointed to a widening gap between price and demand indicators. Bitcoin has climbed over the past 15 days from $74,000 to the $83,000 range. The rise is about 13 percent. But over the same period, the estimated demand figure continued to fall.

This gap raises questions about whether the recent rally is being supported by a recovery in demand. That is because prices are rising even as demand weakens in both futures and spot markets. In particular, the fact that spot demand failed to move out of negative territory even as spot ETF inflows continued shows that internal supply-demand conditions and price moves are not heading in the same direction.

The point drawing attention is the sharp drop in futures demand. The fall from about 164,000 BTC to 3,000 BTC could be read as a sign that short-term speculative money has cooled rapidly. Still, within the range presented, it is hard to conclude that this demand weakness immediately led to a price correction. What can be confirmed is that demand indicators worsened while prices moved in the opposite direction.

The analysis shows that spot and futures demand can weaken at the same time even if ETF inflows continue. The divergence between rising prices and demand indicators showed that the supply-demand structure needs to be considered when interpreting short-term moves in the bitcoin market.