Trading data suggests retail traders aren't behind bitcoin's recent rally

Bitcoin has been on a tear, but it doesn't look like retail traders are driving the action, according to data from market making firm B2C2. 

The firm, which has begun circulating a new weekly note to clients with analysis of the market, said overall the market has recently been "moderately biased to the buy-side." At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading at $57,257, up more than 40% from its lows at the end of September. Ether, meanwhile, is up more than 28% from its lows in September. 

Still, not everyone is buying the ongoing rally in crypto, B2C2 shows. 

"More interesting, however, is the fact that crypto exchanges continue to be the notable outlier, as the only category net selling overall, implying that this move may be driven primarily by institutional money, with retail on the sidelines," the firm said.

Crypto exchanges, which have millions of retail clients, were skewed 57.4% to the sell side from October 3 to the October 10, while OTC desks were buyers of crypto, skewed 54.8%.