And how a more advanced approach changed the way I trade momentum, breakouts, and liquidity

Volume is one of the most widely used metrics in trading. Every crypto trader, from beginner to professional, has stared at the green and red bars under their chart trying to decode market intent.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

Most traders are reading the wrong volume.
Or worse — they’re reading it in the wrong context.

This is especially true when it comes to the popular Daily 24h Volume indicator. You’ve probably seen it on exchanges like Binance, Bybit, OKX — and on TradingView indicators that attempt to emulate it.

And while the metric sounds intuitive (“how much volume traded in the last 24h”), it’s often misunderstood and misapplied in live trading.

In this article, I want to break down:

• Why many traders rely on Daily 24h Volume Indicator
• What its conceptual weaknesses are
• How it differs from standard bar-by-bar volume
• A clear comparison between the two
• And how these insights led me to build a customized, more actionable volume engine that I personally use

Let’s start with the basics.

1. Why Traders Use Daily 24h Volume Indicator

Daily 24h Volume Indicator is attractive because:

• It reflects overall market participation
• It updates continuously and shows exchange-wide liquidity
• It gives a sense of the asset’s current “activity level”

For example:

• If 24h volume is rising → traders assume interest is growing
• If 24h volume is dropping → traders assume liquidity is drying up

It’s a macro-level liquidity gauge.

But here’s the problem:

Daily 24h volume does NOT tell you what’s happening right now on your candle. It tells you what happened in the past day, smoothed into one enormous rolling window. This introduces several pitfalls.

2. The Weaknesses of Daily 24h Volume (Why It Misleads Traders)

Weakness 1 — It’s a rolling metric, not a per-bar signal

Daily 24 volume cannot show momentum shifts inside a candle. You might think volume is increasing… But it’s actually just updating the rolling window.

Weakness 2 — It hides individual bar structure

It blends all buy/sell pressure, spikes, and micro-movements into one big number.

You miss:

• Who is in control (buyers or sellers)
• Strength of candle body
• Wick dominance
• Volume spikes on breakouts

Weakness 3 — It reacts slowly

Because it covers the full 24h window, it behaves like a moving average:

• Big events fade slowly
• Sudden surges barely move the line
• It lags on market turns

Weakness 4 — Traders assume it reflects “current volume”

But the bar forming RIGHT NOW could have:

• Huge actual volume
• But Daily 24 barely moves

— or —

• Very small actual volume
• But Daily 24 stays high from past candles

This disconnect confuses decision-making.

3. Standard Volume vs Daily 24 Volume — Conceptual Differences

Below is a simplified comparison to set things straight.

In short:

• Daily 24h volume is liquidity context.
• Per-bar volume is actionable information.

Most traders mix these two concepts — and get confused signals as a result.

4. Why I Built My Own Volume Indicator

After years of active crypto trading, I realized I needed:

• Something as reliable as per-candle volume
• Something as informative as exchange 24h volume
• Something that actually helps predict breakouts and momentum shifts
• Something that reflects real buying/selling pressure, not just bar color
• Something that filters noise and highlights meaningful spikes

This led me to develop the Advanced Volume Suite — a tool that merges the strengths of both worlds:

• Exchange-style liquidity
• Real-time actionable volume signals
• Momentum detection
• Spike identification
• Breakout confirmation

It’s the volume engine I personally use in my trading, and now I’m sharing it publicly.

The next section describes how it works.

5. Introducing a complete professional toolkit for reading true market volume, momentum, and liquidity: Advanced Volume Suite (24h, Pulse, Spikes, Breakout Pressure)

🔍 What This Indicator Does

The Advanced Volume Suite is a multi-layered volume analysis system designed for traders who rely on volume as a primary decision driver. It expands far beyond TradingView’s standard volume bars by adding:

✔ True USDT Volume

All volume is converted into USDT value (volume × close) to normalize activity across increasing or decreasing prices.

✔ Rolling 24-Hour Volume (Exchange-style metric)

The indicator calculates a custom 24h rolling volume, just like Binance and Bybit display.

✔ Volume Pulse (Strength vs Average)

A powerful ratio that measures momentum inside each bar.

✔ Smart Volume Spike Detection

Identifies abnormal activity using:

• Body strength
• Wick compression
• Trend alignment

✔ Breakout Pressure Engine

Detects:

• Confirmed breakouts
• Fakeouts
• Areas where pressure is building near key levels

6. Fully customizable Advanced Volume Coloring — 3 modes

The indicator introduces intelligent volume bar coloring, which improves clarity and helps interpret orderflow visually:

1️⃣ Simple Mode

Green = close > open
Red = close < open
(Like standard volume but using USDT values)

2️⃣ Body Mode

Colors only when candle body is strong relative to its range.
Filters noise and highlights meaningful bars.

3️⃣ Delta-Style Mode

Detects “aggressive” buyers or sellers based on:

• Candle body dominance
• Upper/lower wick compression
• Directional pressure

7. Why This Matters to Traders

This indicator bridges the gap between:

• Micro-level volume (per-candle activity)
• Macro-level liquidity (24h rolling volume)

And wraps it into:

• A visual breakout system
• A momentum pulse
• Smart spike detection
• Real candle-based volume coloring

It replaces multiple tools and simplifies your volume-based decision-making.

8. How It Differs From the Standard Volume Indicator

9. Final Thoughts

Volume is one of the most important trading metrics — but only when interpreted correctly.

• Standard volume shows real-time behavior
• Daily 24h volume shows high-level liquidity
• My custom indicator merges both concepts and adds intelligent layers for clarity

If you’ve ever missed a breakout, failed to see a spike, or misjudged the strength behind a move, this suite gives you the clarity you were missing.

This indicator is fully free and open-source on TradingView, so that traders can review and verity its functionality.
Advanced Volume Suite (24h, Pulse, Spikes, Breakout Pressure) — Indicator by zalutskyiyuriy — TradingView

Why Most Traders Misread Volume: A Deep Dive into Standard Volume vs Daily 24h Volume was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

ONDO has lost over 65% of its value since October as heavy selling pressure continues to dominate the altcoin market. While Bitcoin has shown relative stability at key levels, many mid-cap tokens like ONDO have struggled to find consistent demand. This drawdown has pushed sentiment toward the bearish side, especially as traders remain cautious around liquidity events and token unlocks.

Still, some analysts argue that the current dip is not purely a sign of weakness. A CryptoQuant report explains that the headlines may scream “price drop,” but the on-chain data is pointing toward “opportunity” instead. The focus is now on ONDO’s massive 1.94 billion token unlock scheduled for January 18, 2026. Historically, unlocks can trigger panic selling, as investors anticipate higher circulating supply and additional distribution pressure.

However, this time may be different. The report suggests that larger market participants are actively positioning through the decline, using the fear as a liquidity window. Rather than treating the unlock as a reason to exit, the data hints that “smart money” is stepping in to absorb supply while retail confidence remains fragile. That sets the stage for a critical test.

Smart Money Absorption Signals Are Building

The CryptoQuant report outlines why larger investors appear to be ignoring the noise around ONDO’s decline. The first signal is the “whale shield.” Despite the sharp correction since the December 2024 peak, Spot Average Order Size continues to be dominated by “Big Whale Orders,” shown through consistent green dots on the chart. This implies institutions are using weakness to absorb liquidity, with the $0.35–$0.40 zone acting as a primary accumulation range.

Second, ONDO has officially entered a Taker Buy Dominant phase. The 90-day Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) remains positive and continues rising, showing that market buy pressure has outweighed market sells for months. This is important because takers represent aggressive participants who buy at the ask without waiting for better entries.

The report frames this alignment as “taker alpha.” When large whale orders and aggressive taker buying strengthen while the price falls, it often reflects absorption. If this continues through the unlock, ONDO could be building a coiled-spring setup for a 2026 RWA breakout.

ONDO Extends Downtrend as Bulls Defend Key Demand Zone

ONDO remains under heavy pressure after a prolonged decline that has erased most of its 2025 upside. The 3-day chart shows a clear breakdown from the former consolidation range near $0.90–$1.00, where price repeatedly failed to reclaim momentum during the second half of the year. Once sellers forced a decisive move lower, the market quickly transitioned into a steep downtrend marked by weak bounces and consistent lower highs.

At the time of writing, ONDO is trading near $0.33 after slipping below the $0.40 handle, a psychological level that previously acted as temporary support. This drop places the token deep below its key moving averages, with the shorter trend lines rolling over and acting as overhead resistance. The failed recovery attempts throughout late 2025 confirm that sellers have stayed in control, while buyers have struggled to generate enough volume to shift the trend.

However, price is now approaching a potential demand zone around $0.30–$0.35, where volatility historically increases and dip buyers may try to step in. If this area fails, the chart suggests downside could accelerate. Still, a strong defense could open the door for a stabilization phase before any meaningful rebound.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

The price of Bitcoin began the new week on an exciting move to the upside. The premier cryptocurrency recorded a price ascent of about 9%, reaching a high of over $97,000 and falling just short of its past six-figure valuation. Interestingly, a recent on-chain revelation shows that an underlying change was simultaneously taking place as the price of Bitcoin soared on the charts.

Are The BTC Bulls Back In Control?

In a January 16 post on social media platform X, crypto analyst Darkfost revealed a notable shift in the on-chain power dynamics, saying that the bulls are seemingly back in control.

The relevant indicator here is the BTC Net Taker Volume, which tracks which of the buyers or sellers is more aggressive in the market. The metric does so by measuring the net difference between buy and sell market orders executed on derivatives exchanges.

Before this recent shift, the net taker volume had fallen into deep negative territory, reaching a bottom of about –$489 million. Due to the lack of demand in the market over that period, the price of BTC continued to fall as selling pressure grew. However, this market scenario has shifted, as of Friday, January 16th.

The Bitcoin Net Taker Volume now records a positive reading, with more than $39 million in buy-side volume from the futures market. This means BTC traders are becoming increasingly interested in opening long positions — and aggressively at that. 

Historically, an increasing buying interest among participants of the futures market typically signals rising bullish sentiment. In turn, upward price pressure increases through leverage, leading to amplified short-term price moves if sustained.

Bitcoin Market Outlook

Darkfost further explained that, although there are signs that Bitcoin ETF inflows might be picking up slightly, it remains that spot buying is yet to gain enough strength to sponsor a decisive bullish move. As a result, all eyes fall on derivatives activity, as it currently serves as support for the Bitcoin price.

Ultimately, the present scenario is best interpreted as the end of bearish pressure, rather than a blatant structure shift. However, in the event that net taker volume continues to grow positively, the narrative could shift from dwindling bearish pressure to mounting bullish momentum.

Till then, market participants are advised to deal cautiously until it is confirmed that the derivatives-sponsored momentum is sustainable for the flagship cryptocurrency’s growth.

As of press time, the price of Bitcoin stands at about $95,357, with insignificant movement over the past day. 

Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView

With the latest bounce on Tuesday, the Bitcoin price has moved back above the $94,000 level, which appears to have reignited bullish sentiment across the market. A confirmed indication of the renewed bullish sentiment is the recent drop in selling pressure from investors and the futures market.

Futures Market Sellers Are Stepping Back

The cryptocurrency market is showing upward strength with Bitcoin reclaiming resistance levels that previously halted its upside attempts. While the price of BTC is trending upwards once again, selling pressure on the flagship asset from the futures market is declining sharply.

Following weeks of aggressive short positioning and high funding rates that exacerbated downward movements, indicators currently reflect a substantial cooling of sell-side activity. As outlined by Darkfost, a market expert and author at CryptoQuant, the selling pressure has now divided by 10 after reaching a monthly average peak of $489 million in the BTC Net Taker Volume metric.

This shift in sentiment is a sign that open interest is returning to normal, liquidations have slowed, and traders are reducing rather than increasing their negative wagers. Although this does not guarantee an immediate rise in BTC’s price, it alleviates one of the biggest headwinds that has affected prices in recent sessions.

The Bitcoin Net Taker Volume metric provides a net volume, which aids in determining who is controlling the futures order books. Furthermore, it is simpler to identify changes in trend and trading activity when the data is smoothed using a monthly average. Currently, Darkfost highlighted that sellers are still slightly dominating the orders, with over $51 million worth of trades. 

While the metric has not yet flipped into positive territory, the data shows that it is gradually approaching it. According to the expert, it is quite encouraging when traders begin to change their approach, especially considering the significant impact futures volumes have on price action.

It is worth noting that the BTC price action has experienced a stable trend since the decline in selling pressure kicked off. Thus, if Net Taker Volume were to turn positive once more, it would undoubtedly set off a bullish reversal for Bitcoin.

Is Bitcoin Volatility Heading For Rock Bottom?

As the bullish sentiment returns to the market, the ongoing volatility is starting to fade, leading to a period of low risk. Axel Adler Jr., another author at CryptoQuant, has shared an update revealing that BTC’s realized volatility has compressed significantly, reaching approximately 23%, a level that statistically rarely persists for long.

In the past, these compression regimens have resulted in a dramatic range expansion. With realized volatility now sitting at 23.6%, compression has reached a critical threshold, bringing BTC to a crucial stage that could play a role in its next move. 

At the time of writing, the price of BTC was trading at $94,890, indicating a more than 3% increase in the last 24 hours. Its trading volume has also increased significantly, rising by nearly 61% over the past day.

XRP is attempting to stabilize above the $2 level after enduring several days of sustained selling pressure, as the broader market searches for direction. While price action has cooled from recent highs, the latest data suggests that activity around XRP remains balanced rather than distressed. According to metrics shared by Arab Chain via CryptoQuant, trading behavior shows no signs of panic or speculative excess despite the recent pullback.

Data sourced from Binance indicates that XRP’s 30-day Z-Score for trading volume is currently around 0.44. This reading places current volume slightly above its 30-day average, but still well within a historically normal range. Importantly, Z-Score values above +2 are typically associated with aggressive inflows and speculative surges, while deeply negative readings tend to signal market apathy or liquidity drying up. XRP’s current position in the positive-neutral zone suggests neither scenario is playing out.

This context matters. Rather than reflecting capitulation or renewed hype, the data points to a market that is digesting prior moves. As XRP holds above $2, the absence of abnormal volume spikes implies that recent selling pressure may be easing, setting the stage for consolidation or a more deliberate next move once conviction returns.

XRP Volume Z-Score Signals Market Equilibrium

The report explains that this behavior suggests XRP’s recent price action was not fueled by a speculative frenzy, but instead reflected relatively balanced trading between buyers and sellers. Despite XRP managing to hold above the $2 level, the absence of an elevated volume Z-Score indicates that the market is not experiencing excessive excitement. Rather, conditions point to a phase of consolidation or potential accumulation following the volatility seen in previous weeks.

This type of Z-Score reading commonly appears during periods of anticipation, when participants wait for a clearer directional catalyst. In such environments, price can remain range-bound as liquidity stays stable and neither side gains decisive control.

If XRP’s price begins to move higher while the Z-Score rises above the 1.5–2.0 range, it would suggest fresh capital entering the market and could mark the beginning of a stronger, momentum-driven advance. That combination would provide clearer confirmation of renewed demand.

On the other hand, if trading volume contracts further and the Z-Score remains near zero or slips into negative territory, it would imply fading interest. Under those conditions, XRP could face renewed downside pressure or extend its sideways consolidation as liquidity thins.

The current Z-Score does not deliver a clear buy or sell signal. Instead, the data highlights a stable market environment. Any meaningful move now requires volume confirmation to establish its robustness.

XRP Price Struggles to Reclaim Key Moving Averages

XRP is currently trading near the $2.05 level after a prolonged period of selling pressure, as shown on the daily chart. The recent rebound from sub-$1.90 levels suggests that buyers are attempting to defend the psychological $2.00 zone, which has acted as an important pivot throughout this cycle. However, price action remains structurally weak, with XRP still trading below its major moving averages.

The chart shows XRP firmly below the 200-day moving average (red line) near the $2.55–$2.60 area, a level that now represents a critical medium-term resistance. The 100-day and 50-day moving averages (green and blue lines) are also sloping downward, reinforcing the bearish trend that began after the failed breakout above $3.50 in late 2025. Each attempt to recover has been capped by these dynamic resistance levels, signaling persistent distribution rather than aggressive accumulation.

From a market structure perspective, XRP continues to print lower highs and lower lows, despite the short-term bounce. Volume has remained relatively muted during the recent recovery, suggesting limited conviction behind the move. This supports the idea that the rebound is corrective rather than the start of a new impulsive trend.

For bullish momentum to regain credibility, XRP must reclaim and hold above the $2.30–$2.40 region, followed by a break above the 200-day moving average. Until then, the prevailing structure favors consolidation or further downside risk.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com