The Coinbase Premium Gap, a metric used to estimate demand for Bitcoin from institutional investors relative to retail investors, has fallen to its lowest level in over a year — signaling a potential sell-off by professional investors, according to an analyst.
The Coinbase Premium is the price difference between Coinbase’s BTC/USD pair and Binance’s BTC/USDT pair.
When it turns negative to this extent, it means that the price of Bitcoin (BTC) on Coinbase Advanced Trade (formerly known as Coinbase Pro) — a platform mainly used by professionals, institutions and high-net-worth individual accounts — is lower than on Binance, a platform accessible to everyone and widely used by retail investors, CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost said on Thursday.
“The selling pressure is intensifying on the institutional side,” added Darkfost.
“In other words, selling pressure coming from institutional players has intensified, pushing the price lower and creating a negative gap.”
Coinbase premium downtrending since October
The Coinbase Premium Gap is currently -167.8, its lowest level since December 2024, according to CryptoQuant.
A decreasing trend indicates that “whales are continuously selling at a lower premium. In addition, it shows decreasing interest and activeness of investors in Coinbase,” it explained.
The Coinbase Premium Gap has been decreasing since the mid-October market downturn, and the decline has accelerated over the past week.
Related: Spot crypto volumes plunge to 2024 lows amid investor demand weakening
“The current period is extremely challenging and highly uncertain, a climate that is not conducive to risk-taking and therefore to significant investments in BTC, which remains a volatile and risky asset,” said the analyst.
Spot ETFs offloading billions in BTC
CryptoQuant stated that “institutional demand has reversed materially” in a market update on Wednesday.
The onchain analytics platform added that US spot exchange-traded funds, which had purchased more than 46,000 BTC this time last year, are net sellers in 2026, offloading 10,600 BTC.
This creates a “56,000 BTC demand gap versus 2025 and contributes to persistent selling pressure,” it added.
Over the past week, spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen $1.2 billion in outflows, while Bitcoin fell to a 15-month low below $71,000 on Thursday.
Magazine: DAT panic dumps 73,000 ETH, India’s crypto tax stays: Asia Express
