An analysis says the bitcoin and ether markets are extending a wait-and-see phase without establishing a clear direction. With exchange inflows staying low, there is no sign of urgent selling, but active buying is also limited, keeping the market in balance.

CoinPost reported on Thursday that on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant said in a weekly report released on Tuesday that both bitcoin and ether are failing to form a clear trend as buying and selling remain evenly matched.

Bitcoin shows a slight edge in short (sell) positions, but the intensity of bets on a decline appears limited. Despite a small recent increase in short positions, the price has repeatedly held the $62,000 to $63,000 range. CryptoQuant said it is hard to view the market as having tilted sharply toward a downside move.

Ether showed a different flow. Around $1,880, profit-taking in long (buy) positions is continuing, but short positions are not leading the market. The focus is on reducing the size of existing positions rather than placing new bets on a decline.

Futures market indicators also showed a lack of direction. For both bitcoin and ether, the taker buy-sell ratio hovered around 1.0, staying in a neutral zone where active buying and selling are balanced. No one-sided flow was seen in either spot or futures markets.

Still, demand for long positions remains in place. Across all exchanges, bitcoin's funding rate was about 0.006 percent, and ether's funding rate on Deribit was about 0.0011 percent, both positive. Funding rates have stayed positive since early June last year, suggesting a continued preference for long positions.

CryptoQuant also warned of potential risks. If funding rates stay at high positive levels for a long period, long positions could accumulate excessively and make prices vulnerable. If funding rates then turn negative, long positions could be liquidated quickly, potentially increasing volatility, it said.

In the spot market, no clear selling pressure has yet been detected. Daily exchange inflows for bitcoin were about 7,400 BTC and for ether about 274,000 ETH, both remaining at low levels so far this year. CryptoQuant said the trend reflects that the market has already priced in to a large extent expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep its policy rate unchanged.

The Federal Open Market Committee in July kept the policy rate unchanged at 3.50 to 3.75 percent a year. The vote split 9 to 3, with three regional Federal Reserve bank presidents voting against the decision while calling for a rate hike. Market attention is now focused on how the direction of monetary policy will be decided at the September FOMC meeting.

On-chain analytics firm Glassnode also interpreted the decline in exchange deposits the same day as one of the signals showing the market's "indifference." A quiet market with declining volume is a pattern that often appears in the middle of a bear market, it said.

In the market, an outlook says that for the time being both bitcoin and ether are likely to see limited strong selling pressure, while a lack of fresh buying momentum to lead an uptrend may persist. Funding-rate changes and the September FOMC result are being watched as key variables that will determine the next direction for the two assets.