6 March 2024
Bitcoin has set a new all-time high (ATH) above the $69,000 level as institutional investors have aggressively bought on Coinbase.
Bitcoin Has Set A New ATH Above $69,000
The moment that every Bitcoin investor had been looking forward to has finally arrived today. The cryptocurrency just smashed past the record set in November 2021 to create a brand new ATH beyond the $69,000 level.
This historical moment has come for the asset as institutional investors have been showing some strong buying pressure recently.
Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Index Spikes To Highest Levels For 2024
As an analyst in a CryptoQuant Quicktake post explained, US institutional investors appear to be scrambling to buy Bitcoin as they are starting to feel FOMO with the sharp bullish momentum the cryptocurrency has enjoyed.
The metric of interest here is the “Coinbase Premium Index,” which keeps track of the percentage difference between the Bitcoin prices listed on cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase (USD pair) and Binance (USDT pair).
The former exchange is the preferred platform for institutional traders based in the US, while the latter serves more global traffic. As such, the Coinbase Premium Index can provide hints about the differences in the buying and selling behaviors of the two groups.
When the indicator has a positive value, the price listed on Coinbase is higher than on Binance. Such a trend implies that the buying pressure is higher (or selling pressure is lower) from the US-based investors compared to Binance users.
On the other hand, the negative metric suggests that American institutional traders may be applying relatively high selling pressure on the market.
Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Index over the past few months:
As displayed in the graph, the Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Index has registered a large positive spike recently, implying the difference between the prices on Coinbase and Binance has widened.
The indicator had been floating inside the green territory for a while before this spike, and in this period of high buying pressure on Coinbase, the coin observed a sharp rally.
This recent buying pressure would probably include sources like the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) approved this year. From the chart, it’s visible that the buying pressure has been even higher in the last couple of weeks, culminating in the latest spike.
Interest around the asset among these institutional entities had only been growing recently, but the latest spike suggests FOMO has gone up a level for these investors.
Given that institutional buying has been one of the main forces behind the latest rally in the cryptocurrency, it’s no wonder that its price has hit a fresh high off the back of the latest spike.