The buying momentum that fueled bitcoin's April rally appears to be waning. The Coinbase Premium, which measures the difference in price between 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 investment and dollar-denominated flows, a sustained negative reading suggests that American investors are now paying less than the rest of the world, indicating either more aggressive selling or reduced participation. On-chain data paints a similar picture, with the 7-day sum of bitcoin realized losses spiking to $5.97 billion on April 24 as the price traded near $78,000.
This realized loss, which occurs when coins are sold below their original purchase price, implies that sellers were likely buyers who entered the market between $80,000 and $95,000 in late 2025 and early 2026, using the April bounce as an exit opportunity rather than a reentry point. The combination of these datasets suggests that US institutional buyers are slowing their purchases through Coinbase, coinciding with increased selling activity among holders. 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 worked through, with the reading already falling to $4.7 billion by April 28, indicating a potential thinning of the seller cohort.