Bitcoin Has Undergone This Bearish Structure Change, Analyst Explains

An analyst has explained that the recent trend in the Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Gap suggests a significant change in the asset’s structure.

In a new post on X, analyst Maartunn discussed how the Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Gap is still negative. The “Coinbase Premium Gap” here refers to a metric that tracks the difference between the Bitcoin prices listed on cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase (USD pair) and Binance (USDT pair).

This indicator’s value provides hints about how the behavior of the former’s userbase currently differs from that of the latter platform.

Below is the chart shared by the analyst that reveals the trend in the Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Gap since the start of the year.

As the graph shows, the Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Gap had been mostly positive as Bitcoin had gone through its journey from $44,000 to beyond the $73,000 level.

This would imply that the price listed on the exchange was higher than on Binance during this period. Such a trend naturally suggests that the buying pressure on the former was greater than on the latter.

Coinbase is widely known to be the preferred platform of US-based institutional investors, while Binance has global traffic. Thus, the green positive premium values would imply these large American entities had been buying and supporting the rally.

Recently, however, the indicator’s value turned negative as these investors took to selling instead. Since then, the metric has continued to assume such values. Alongside this selloff, the BTC price has experienced a notable decline.

The Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Gap followed a similar pattern during the first month or so of the year. In the first 10 days of January, the metric had been positive as buying had occurred in anticipation of the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Still, after the ETFs had been approved, the indicator had turned negative.

The red premium values had maintained for a few weeks, during which the cryptocurrency price had struggled. Based on this pattern and the recent trend, it would seem that American institutional traders have driven the price action this year.

As such, so long as the current bearish structure in the Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Gap exists, it’s possible that the price may not be able to amass too much upward momentum.

At the end of the positive Coinbase Premium Gap streak, Bitcoin had been able to achieve a new all-time high above $73,800, but as traders have switched to selling on the platform, the coin has dropped almost 9%, with its price now trading around $67,300.