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's price rose from $66,000 to nearly $78,000.
However, the premium has been declining since its peak on April 22. 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 either more aggressive selling or a lack of buying interest.
On-chain data paints a similar picture, with the 7-day sum of Bitcoin Realized Loss spiking to $5.97 billion on April 24 as Bitcoin traded near $78,000. This spike in realized losses implies that sellers were buying at higher prices, likely between $80,000 and $95,000 in 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 just as 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 underwater supply is worked through, with the reading already dropping to $4.7 billion by April 28, indicating a potential thinning of the seller cohort.