This Indicator Hints US Investors Sold Bitcoin Harder Than Others During Crash

The Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Index suggests US investors have been selling more heavily than others during the latest crash in the crypto.

Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Index Has Turned Deep Red Recently

As pointed out by an analyst in a CryptoQuant post, whales on Coinbase Pro seem to have been behind the latest dump.

The “Coinbase Premium Index” is an indicator that measures the percentage difference between the Bitcoin price listed on Coinbase Pro (USD Pair) and the one listed on Binance (USDT pair).

Coinbase Pro is popularly known to be used by investors based in the US (especially large institutionals), while Binance gets a more global traffic.

Therefore, the price gaps listed on these two crypto exchanges can hint at which investors are selling or buying more.

When the metric has a positive value, it means the value of BTC on Coinbase is higher than on Binance right now, suggesting that US investors have provided more buying pressure recently.

On the other hand, negative values of the premium suggest American holders are dumping more than global investors at the moment.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Index over the past year:

The value of the metric seems to have been red in recent days | Source: CryptoQuant

As you can see in the above graph, the Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Index has plunged into negative values recently along with the crash.

This means that US investors have been dumping more aggressively than investors from the rest of the world in the past week.

Also, as is clearly visible in the chart, a similar trend was also seen back in early May, when BTC’s price crashed from $40k to $30k.

The quant notes that while Coinbase observed this selling, the Bitcoin Korea Premium Index showed an interesting behavior. The below chart highlights this trend.

Looks like this metric had a green value recently | Source: CryptoQuant

The Korea Premium Index measures the gap between the prices listed on South Korean crypto exchanges, and that on other exchanges.

From the graph, it’s apparent that during both the current crash as well as the one in May, the indicator showed positive spikes.

This implies that while the US investors were dumping, the Korean investors were focusing on “buying the dip.”

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price floats around $16.8k, down 15% in the last week. Over the past month, the crypto has shed 11% in value.

BTC has been stuck in consolidation under $17k in the last few days | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView Featured image from Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, CryptoQuant.com