The US-driven momentum that fueled April's price surge is losing steam. The Coinbase Premium, which measures the difference between the price of Bitcoin on Coinbase and offshore exchanges, has flipped negative for the first time since early April, according to CryptoQuant data.
This metric had been consistently positive from April 8 to April 22, during which time Bitcoin rose from $66,000 to nearly $78,000. The premium peaked around April 22 and has been declining since.
As Coinbase is often used as a proxy for US institutional and dollar-denominated flows, a persistent negative reading suggests that American investors are now paying less than the rest of the world, indicating they are either selling more aggressively or not participating as much. On-chain data paints a similar picture. The 7-day sum of Bitcoin Realized Loss, which tracks the total dollar value of coins sold at a loss, spiked to $5.97 billion on April 24 as Bitcoin traded near $78,000.
This means that sellers were likely buyers who entered the market at higher prices, between $80,000 and $95,000, during late 2025 and early 2026, and are now using the April bounce as an exit opportunity rather than a reentry point. The combination of these two datasets suggests that US institutional buyers are slowing their purchases through Coinbase, while holders are increasing their selling activity. With Bitcoin recently trading around $76,000, traders are watching to see if the Realized Loss metric will continue to decline as the supply of underwater coins is cleared. The reading has already dropped from its April 24 peak to $4.7 billion by April 28, indicating that the seller cohort may be dwindling.