NodeMonkes surge again as bitcoin rallies, volume hits yearly record

As Bitcoin rallied towards a new all-time high just two weeks ago, NodeMonkes, the Bitcoin ordinals collection, has since recorded its two consecutive highest weekly sales volumes for the year.

In the week Bitcoin set its all-time high, NodeMonkes recorded $2.99 million in volume, while the prior week printed $2.38 million. These are the collection’s strongest weekly totals since December 2024, when Bitcoin also notched an all-time high. Interestingly, NodeMonkes’ peak trade volumes also occurred in late February to early March 2024, when Bitcoin first surpassed its 2021 high.

The correlation between NodeMonkes picking up trade volume whenever Bitcoin rallies is undeniable.

Spikes in NodeMonkes’ trade volume are often followed by near-term BTC pullbacks. For example, after the first week of March 2024, BTC fell by over 10% the following week. A similar NodeMonkes volume surge in late December 2024 preceded another ~10% BTC decline the next week. Most recently, the week NodeMonkes recorded its highest yearly trade volume coincided with one of the worst crypto market-wide selloffs in history as Bitcoin fell by over 12% in a single day.

While correlation is not causation, NodeMonkes seem to have become a "top indicator" of sorts, acting as a late-cycle sentiment gauge. When flows rotate from BTC into higher-beta Ordinals collectibles, it often marks frothy conditions and a greater risk of a near-term cool-off in BTC. And while caveats apply and the sample size is small, the signal has been notably consistent enough to monitor in the future.

This is an excerpt from  The Block's Data & Insights newsletter . Dig into the numbers making up the industry's most thought-provoking trends.