- BTC’s Coinbase Premium Gap has increased since the year began.
- This shows that there is more demand for the coin on Coinbase than on Binance.
The first few days of 2024 have seen a surge of institutional interest in Bitcoin [BTC] on Coinbase, with the exchange’s Premium Gap reaching new highs, CryptoQuant analyst Maartunn noted in a new report.
BTC’s Coinbase Premium Gap compares the price at which the coin is traded on Coinbase to how much it is traded on Binance. When it rises, it means that investors are willing to pay a premium to acquire the coin on Coinbase.
According to Maartun:
“This premium fluctuates, ranging from a few dollars to exceeding $50, underscoring robust buying activity.”
This comes amid Binance’s recent troubles in the US and the global decline in its market share as a result.
Binance Vs Coinbase
AMBCrypto reported earlier that at the beginning of 2023, Binance commanded a spot trading market share of 65%, while Coinbase trailed behind in a distant second with roughly 8.2%.
As regulatory pressure mounted on the exchange during the year, its market share plummeted by 20%, and by December, Binance’s market share had dropped to around 44%.
The recent rise in BTC’s Coinbase Premium Gap could be institutional investors aping in on the leading coin ahead of a potential spot ETF approval.
According to Maartun, the growth of this metric “has sparked speculation about whether MicroStrategy is acquiring additional Bitcoin or if these purchases are part of preparations for an ETF approval.”
A series of predictions surfaced in December 2023 that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would grant its first approval by 10th January.
However, a report published by crypto investment services provider Matrixport on 3rd January stated that the regulator would reject all applications because they “fall short of a critical requirement that must be met.”
In recent news, Jacquelyn Meline, a senior reporter at TechCrunch, confirmed the possibility of approvals for “multiple firms’ applications” coming in very soon.
heard from sources extremely close to the matter that the bitcoin spot ETF is going to be approved by the SEC for *multiple* firms’ applications
— Jacquelyn Melinek (@jacqmelinek) January 4, 2024
Read BTC’s Price Prediction 2023-24
That is not all
Apart from its Coinbase Premium Gap, BTC’s Coinbase Premium Index (CPI) has also trended upward since the year began. At 0.095 at press time, it has since risen by 2%, according to data from CryptoQuant.
Source: CryptoQuant
The CPI is a metric that measures the difference between the price of an asset on Coinbase and on Binance. When an asset’s CPI value is positive and in an uptrend, it indicates strong buying pressure among institutional investors on Coinbase.