Bitcoin’s $100K Stumble Coincides With US Whales Pulling Back, Analyst Says

Bitcoin’s latest bout of price weakness may have less to do with macroeconomic jitters and more with American whales quietly stepping off the gas.

The telltale sign is a drop in the Coinbase Premium, an often overlooked indicator of U.S. investor sentiment, which now appears to signal growing selling pressure from investors based in the country.

US Whales Quietly Selling

In his latest take, CryptoQuant analyst AbramChart noted that the Coinbase Premium gap, which measures the price difference between Bitcoin on Coinbase and other global exchanges, has plunged to -5.07, its lowest level in weeks. It means that BTC is currently trading at a noticeable discount on the American crypto exchange compared to its counterparts around the world.

According to the expert, this metric, often used as a proxy for the behavior of institutional and high-net-worth traders in the United States, suggests that domestic whales could be offloading their holdings.

The timing is hard to ignore, given the drop came just as Bitcoin lost steam near the psychologically significant $100,000 level. Initially, during BTC’s strong recovery in April, the premium surged alongside the flagship cryptocurrency’s rally toward $98,000, peaking around mid-month before reversing course and dipping into negative territory even as Bitcoin’s price corrected.

“Over the past month, the premium recovered significantly but is now dropping again — aligning with the recent BTC price correction,” wrote AbramChart.

The analyst further stated that a negative premium reflects bearish sentiment among U.S. traders, while a persistent unfavorable gap means short-term downside risk could increase, signaling caution for investors.

Market Movements

Bitcoin is now changing hands at about $94,294, marking a negligible 0.4% drop in the last 24 hours. It follows a choppy few days for the asset, which, after staging a rally that pushed it as high as $98,000 last Friday, saw its momentum fade over the weekend.

In the last 48 hours, it has bounced at least twice off its critical $93,000 support level but has struggled to reclaim $95,000.

The current price means BTC has dipped slightly by 0.9% over the past week, closely mirroring the broader crypto market, which has contracted by the same percentage in that period.

However, on a monthly scale, the crypto asset remains in positive territory, boasting a 13.6% gain across 30 days and 44.7% in the last 12 months.