Bitcoin Jumps to $99K as Spiking Coinbase Premium Points to Strong U.S. Buying

Spot
BTC
prices
were
at
times
$300
pricier
on
Coinbase
relative
to
Binance,
suggesting
the
rally
may
be
driven
by
heavy
demand
from
American
investors.

Dec
4,
2024,
9:42 p.m.
UTC

Bitcoin
(BTC),
which
had
traded
in
a
tight
range
for
most
of
Wednesday,
suddenly
surged
toward
$100,000
during
the
U.S.
afternoon,
nearing
a
milestone
price
that
it’s
been
unable
to
bust
through
for
weeks.

After
briefly
dipping
below
$95,000
around
midday,
BTC
later
jumped
nearly
5%,
hitting
a
$99,177
session
high,
CoinDesk
data
shows.
The
largest
cryptocurrency
by
market
capitalization
was
up
3.2%
in
the
past
24
hours,
outperforming
the
broader
market
benchmark

CoinDesk
20
Index‘s
1.3%
gain.

The
price
action
happened
as
the
so-called
“Coinbase
Premium,”
a
key
metric
to
gauge
BTC
demand
among
U.S.
investors,
spiked
to
rarely
seen
highs.

TradingView
data
shows
that
BTC
was
at
times
over
$300
pricier
on
Coinbase
relative
to
Binance
during
the
price
surge,
suggesting
that
the
rally
was
perhaps
driven
by
strong
demand
by
American
market
participants.

The
Coinbase
Premium
measures
the
price
difference
for
spot
BTC
on
Coinbase,
widely
used
by
U.S.
customers
and
many
institutional
market
participants,
compared
to
prices
on
offshore
Binance,
the
leading
exchange
by
trading
volume
that’s
popular
among
retail
users.

The
rally
happened
after
—
although
likely
not
because
of
—
Federal
Reserve
Chair
Jerome
Powell

compared
bitcoin
to
a
digital
version
of
gold
and
a
competitor
of
the
precious
metal
during
an
appearance
at
the
New
York
Times
DealBook
event
on
Wednesday.
Prices
also
jumped
as
Donald
Trump
nominated
Paul
Atkins,
who
is
viewed
as
being
friendly
to
crypto,
to
run
the
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission.

Bitcoin
has
been
battling
the
$100,000
milestone
for
the
past
two
weeks,
a
rally
fueled
by
optimism
about
Trump’s
election.
Heavy
profit-taking
has
prevented
it
from
breaking
through.
History,
however,
suggests
that
BTC
may
require
multiple
attempts
to
pierce
through
the
psychologically
key
level,
CoinDesk
senior
analyst
James
Van
Straten

pointed
out.