Bitcoin has in fact already hit $ 50.000 on some exchanges, but the so-called whales need to come to its side to have definitive support at this level, as the data suggest. On February 16 in a tweet from the CEO of the on-chain analysis service CryptoQuant Ki Young Ju, he said that one of the latest obstacles is represented by "Coinbase premium".
A negative premium service that slows the rush to the top
The bulls on Tuesday, during a battle that clearly saw Bitcoin emerge towards the 50k level, actually failed to reach their target. Analyzing the premium service, which pits the price of the BTC / USD pair on Coinbase against that of the BTC / USDT pair on Binance, Ki said that until this situation was neutralized, reaching higher levels would be very difficult.
Currently the premium service is negative, which means it costs less to buy bitcoin on Coinbase (find out how buy bitcoin). As a result, traders, especially whales, will continue to accumulate. Only when the momentum stabilizes, 50k will be supported more.
Ki wrote that the battle for the 50k is being fought between the whales of Coinbase and those of Stablecoin, or USD versus USDT.
The all-time highs reached by other stablecoins during this bullish period mean that investors are ready to trade other assets as well. Meanwhile, the leading stablecoin, Tether (USDT), has accelerated its run in recent months, reaching a new market capitalization, which is now approaching a whopping $ 33 billion.
However, at the time of writing this article, the whales are all still waiting to sell as soon as BTC passes 50k. Taking a look at the order log data on Binance, it shows that incremental sell orders appear up to 55k.
No "FUD" compared to the GBTC
Meanwhile, an analyst has warned investors against a misinterpretation of another premium, this time addressing in particular institutional ones. Since early 2021, the Grayscale Bitcoin premium, which refers to the price investors pay for shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), has declined. However, this does not mean that the interest in BTC is reduced, but on the contrary, it represents a real buying opportunity.
A bigger GBTC award marks strong interest in Bitcoin. Institutional inflows into GBTC have been one of the biggest indications of the bull market in recent months, so all eyes are on there. And now that the premium prices are down, many have begun to worry. At least that's what analyst Alex Krueger says.
However, he continues, prices have not plummeted due to lower GBTC demand, but rather due to higher issuance. Indeed, it appears that Grayscale has steadily increased its holdings in BTC, even restarting purchases for Ether (ETH) after a hiatus of nearly 2 months. A few days ago, he was reported for a Bitcoin asset under management worth 31,1 billion dollars.
