🔁 Buyers, Sellers, and Price Movement—What’s Really Happening?

In every market (including crypto), price changes are not just about people buying or selling. They're about how they do it—at what price they choose to transact. This is where makers and takers come in.

💡 1. Maker vs Taker: Who Are They?

Makers place limit orders — they say:

“I want to buy BTC at $65,000” or “Sell it at $67,000” and wait.

These orders sit in the order book, waiting for someone to match them.

Takers place market orders — they say:

“Give me BTC now, I’ll pay the current price.”

They remove liquidity from the order book.

📌 Key insight:

Price only moves when takers are aggressive enough to eat through the available orders (liquidity) on the other side.

🔼🔽 2. Why Price Goes Up or Down

Price rises when more market buys come in, pushing through the sell orders (ask side).

Buyers are impatient—they take the best available prices until none are left.

Price drops when more market sells push through the buy orders (bid side).

Sellers are aggressive, offloading at any price buyers are offering.

So price is not about “more buyers than sellers”. It’s about who is more aggressive—buyers or sellers—and what price they're willing to take.

🔍 3. So What About Candlestick Patterns Then?

Candlestick patterns reflect the psychological battle between buyers and sellers within a given time frame (like a 5-minute or 1-hour candle):

Wicks show rejection (price tried to go up/down but failed)

Bodies show momentum (price was accepted in that range)

Patterns like Doji, Engulfing, etc., reflect hesitation, continuation, or reversal—but they don’t cause price moves.

They're only meaningful when understood in context—liquidity zones, volume, and where market participants might be trapped or incentivized.

🤔 But the Market is Transparent, Right?

Yes, crypto markets appear transparent (we can see the order book and price). But:

Most of what you see is high-frequency algorithms placing and canceling orders—noise.