Bitcoin Taker Buy/Sell Ratio
The taker buy/sell ratio is the volume bought with market orders on BTC perpetual futures over a day divided by the volume sold with market orders - a measure of which side the aggressive volume is coming from. A reading above 1 says taker buy volume exceeded sell volume that day; below 1 says the opposite. The 1.00 line is not an interpretive threshold but the definitional balance point of the ratio. Cedvel publishes this series as total buy volume over total sell volume across thirteen exchanges, and it is meant to be read alongside open interest, the funding rate and long/short positioning rather than on its own.
This chart shows real data up to September 27, 2026. The live value is free on Cedvel - no subscription needed.
Source: Coinalyze
What is it?
The taker buy/sell ratio is the volume of BTC bought with market orders over a day divided by the volume sold with market orders. A taker is the side that accepts a resting order on the book - the impatient side, the one that prefers immediate execution over a better price. Above 1 the day's taker buy volume exceeded its sell volume; below 1 the sell side was larger. What it measures is not the size or the direction of positioning but which side the aggressive volume came from.
How is it calculated?
Two fields are read from the daily candle Coinalyze reports per venue: total volume and the taker BUY share of it. Sell volume is the difference between the two, per the source's own contract. Across a fixed panel of thirteen venues (Binance, OKX, Bybit, Gate.io, Hyperliquid, Aster, Huobi, Kraken, dYdX, Bitfinex, WOO X, BitMEX, Deribit) all buy volumes and all sell volumes are summed SEPARATELY and only then divided - the per-venue ratios are not averaged, because that would give a small exchange the same weight as a large one. Keeping the panel fixed is essential: if the set of venues changed over time, the chart would show jumps that look like market moves but are really changes in composition. The series starts on the first day the panel was complete (19 April 2025), and days when the panel was incomplete are not written at all - no zero is inserted, the previous day is not carried forward, nothing is interpolated, so those days stay a real gap in the chart.
How to read it
The 1.00 line is not an interpretive threshold but the definitional balance point of the ratio: buy and sell volume are exactly equal there. The series oscillates in a narrow band around it - across the published window 90 percent of days fall between 0.92 and 1.09, so a single day closing somewhat above or below 1 is not a signal in itself. What carries meaning is the SIZE and the PERSISTENCE of a deviation: a ratio that stays clearly above 1 for several days running says aggressive buyers are accompanying the move. This series is not read on its own - open interest shows the total scale of leverage, the funding rate what that leverage costs, and the long/short ratio which side positioning is concentrated on; the taker ratio adds the answer to 'which side is the aggressive volume coming from?'
Things to watch out for
There is no published, sourceable threshold for 'extreme buying or selling pressure', which is why Cedvel puts no bands, levels or regime badge on this series; 1.00 is shown only as a reference line and produces no automatic bullish or bearish reading. The ratio measures VOLUME, not positioning: every trade has a buyer and a seller, and what is measured is which side acted aggressively with a market order - it does not mean 'there are more buyers'. The value is dimensionless and therefore independent of the price level, but on low-volume days a single large trade weighs disproportionately. The series covers only the thirteen venues in the panel - flow on other exchanges, and on spot markets, is not in this total.
Historical usage
The series Cedvel publishes begins on 19 April 2025, the first day the thirteen-exchange panel was complete; older data from the source spans fewer venues, does not measure the same thing, and is deliberately not shown. Across that window the ratio has stayed in a narrow band: 210 of 497 days (42.3 percent) closed above 1 and the median reading is 0.990, so over the long run the aggressive volume is split almost evenly between the two sides. The extremes show how narrow that band is - the lowest day is 0.871 on 28 July 2025 and the highest is 1.211 on 18 July 2026. The days from 10 to 12 October 2025 are absent from the series: not all thirteen panel venues reported on those days, and rather than write an incomplete total the days were not produced at all, so the chart keeps a real gap there between 0.950 on 9 October 2025 and 0.979 on 13 October 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Bitcoin taker buy/sell ratio?
It is the volume of BTC bought with market orders (as a taker) over a day divided by the volume sold with market orders. A taker is the side that accepts an order resting on the book - the side that chooses immediate execution over waiting for a better price.
What does a reading above 1 mean?
It means taker buy volume exceeded taker sell volume that day, so the aggressive volume came from the buy side. A reading below 1 says the opposite. 1.00 is NOT a bullish or bearish threshold: it is the definitional point where numerator and denominator are exactly equal, and Cedvel derives no automatic directional reading from that line.
Does this ratio mean there are more buyers than sellers?
No. Every trade has a buyer and a seller, so the total bought and the total sold are always equal. What is measured is which side acted aggressively with a market order: the ratio rises above 1 when the buy side is lifting resting offers, and falls below 1 when the sell side is hitting resting bids.
Is the taker buy/sell ratio the same as taker delta?
No. Both are derived from the same data but they are different quantities: the delta is the signed DIFFERENCE between buy and sell volume in BTC and can be negative; the ratio is their QUOTIENT - dimensionless and always positive. For the same day the delta answers 'how many more BTC were bought' while the ratio answers 'how many times the sell volume was the buy volume'. This page shows the ratio.
Which exchanges does this series cover?
A fixed panel of thirteen venues: Binance, OKX, Bybit, Gate.io, Hyperliquid, Aster, Huobi, Kraken, dYdX, Bitfinex, WOO X, BitMEX and Deribit. Keeping the panel fixed is essential - if the set of venues changed over time, the chart would show jumps that look like market moves but are really changes in composition. The per-venue ratios are not averaged either: all buy volumes and all sell volumes are summed separately and only then divided, so a small exchange does not carry the same weight as a large one.
Why are some days missing from the chart?
On days when not all thirteen panel venues reported, the total would be incomplete, so the day is not written at all. No zero is inserted, the previous day is not carried forward, and nothing is interpolated - an incomplete total would draw a fake deviation indistinguishable from a real move. So far this has happened over 10-12 October 2025.
How current is the data on this page?
The public guide series runs at least three days behind; the most recent days are part of Cedvel Pro. The 'Latest public value' card shows the date and value of the most recent observation the delay window allows.