Bitcoin 

BTC

$22,691

 fell towards $30,000 on Jan. 26 after higher levels evaporated and fresh miner outflows appeared to suppress price action.

BTC price rally turns sour

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and Tradingview showed the largest cryptocurrency abruptly U-turn as it neared $35,000 in early week trading. 

At the time of writing, BTC/USD was lingering closer to $31,000, marking 24-hour losses in excess of 5%.

A combination of factors, all of which suggest a short-term profit-taking mission among market participants, entered the scene on Monday to keep bulls from taking prices higher. 

Miners likely still selling

Data shows that miner outflows — funds leaving mining pools — continued to spike this week. As Cointelegraph reported, last week's price dive came as largest pool F2Pool saw several days of major outflows. This time, however, smaller miners were taking the lead.

Outflows may not specifically indicate that miners are selling BTC, but show that mined coins are moving, possibly to venues where they will form part of a trade.

According to on-chain analytics resource CryptoQuant, total outflows were down this week versus last, but still heightened compared with recent months.

Exchange flows positive for Bitcoin

Looking at exchanges, traders appeared to be nervous regarding market strength. Unlike behavior during Bitcoin's vertical price growth at the turn of the year, net flows to exchanges were positive in recent days. 

Compiled by on-chain monitoring resource Glassnode, data tracking major exchanges showed that around $108 million more was deposited than withdrawn on Monday.

Conversely, supplies of largest altcoin Ether 

ETH

$1,551

 on trading platforms fell by $47 million, while Tether 

USDT

$1.00

 increased by $65 million.

Removal of coins from exchanges implies that holders have no intention to trade or sell them, instead placing them back in hot or cold storage wallets.

Coins are highly active

There are more active Bitcoin addresses than ever, while BTC holdings kept moving in recent days.

Bitcoin Days Destroyed, which measures the amount of each transaction on the Bitcoin network versus how long ago the coins involved last moved, hit three-month lows this week.