Coinbase experienced a significant increase in activity as the new year kicked off as a result of Bitcoin surpassing $32,000 USD. According to analysts and cryptocurrency experts, this shows similar signs to when software and information services firm MicroStrategy added a large sum to its investment portfolio; a trend largely driven by institutional orders.

Coinbase Bitcoin activity increasing

Over the past two days, Coinbase has offered a higher premium compared to other exchanges, such as Binance. When the price of Bitcoin sent past $30,000 USD, the premium on Coinbase breached nearly $350 USD compared to other exchanges. Before the bull run started, Ki Young Ju – CryptoQuant CEO – noted that the low trading outflows from Coinbase could be a roadblock to Bitcoin rallying, suggesting that they would need to increase for the cryptocurrency to see any traction heading upwards.

Speculative guess, but BTC would have a correction when the spot inflow of institutional investors slows down. BTC needs to bring more institutional investors. For example, Grayscale BTC holdings are still 607k since 25 Dec.

Data: @bybt_com pic.twitter.com/H0a5gkoVmt

— Ki Young Ju 주기영 (@ki_young_ju) December 31, 2020

When Bitcoin started closing in on the $29,500 USD price tag, we started to see an increase in Coinbase’s outflows. This activity, according to Ki, represents bullish activity for the cryptocurrency and led further to the surge of the token.

Bitcoin bullish and breaking new records

Analyst at Delphi Digital, Ashwath Balakrishnan, also commented on Bitcoin’s bullish behaviour, noting that the cryptocurrency market became more attractive to new investors as it broke past its all-time high:

Buying $BTC post- ATH is actually superior than sniping the bottom from a risk adjusted lens

If you bought at $20k you’re up 50% with minimal friction in between

Bottom buyers ~$4k are up almost 8x but their risk of blowing up was much higher

— Ashwath Balakrishnan (@ashwath_22) January 2, 2021