The US-driven rally in April is losing momentum. 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 rose from $66,000 to nearly $78,000. However, it 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 sustained negative reading indicates that American investors are paying less than the rest of the world, suggesting they are either selling more aggressively or not participating as much.
On-chain data supports this narrative, with the 7-day sum of bitcoin realized losses spiking to $5.97 billion on April 24 as bitcoin traded near $78,000. This realized loss is only recorded when coins are sold below their original purchase price.
The fact that this figure approached $6 billion at a price of $78,000 implies that the sellers were buyers at higher prices, likely between $80,000 and $95,000 in late 2025 and early 2026, and used the April bounce as an exit opportunity rather than a reentry point, according to CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. The combination of these datasets suggests that US institutional buyers are slowing their purchases through Coinbase as holders increase 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 decreased from its April 24 peak to $4.7 billion by April 28, indicating that the seller cohort is diminishing.