Bitcoin is showing its strongest indication of renewed U.S. buying interest in weeks, with the Coinbase Premium Index flipping positive after nearly a month in negative territory. The shift comes as BTC trades near $91,000 during Saturday’s Asian session.
The premium — which measures the price difference between Coinbase and the broader global market — has historically served as a reliable gauge of U.S. capital flows. A negative reading often points to domestic risk-off behavior or institutional outflows, while a sustained positive premium has tended to signal ETF-driven demand and improving dollar liquidity.
Thursday marked the first time since late October that Coinbase’s spot price consistently led global averages.
Capital positioning appears to support the move. Binance’s stablecoin reserves climbed to a record $51.1 billion in November, suggesting a growing pool of deployable dry powder. Options desks also report a cleaner positioning landscape, with GSR highlighting a flush of speculative longs and a setup more conducive to market expansion as skew and downside hedging retreat from extremes.
Research firms Kronos and Presto, in separate notes earlier this week, described the latest uptick as a textbook oversold bounce following two weeks of leverage unwinding.
Still, BTC is boxed between critical levels. According to FxPro’s Alex Kuptsikevich, the $90,000 area — previously a strong reaction zone — may now function as resistance, with bulls needing a decisive push through $95,000 to confirm trend recovery. A slip below $87,000, however, risks reopening the slide toward $80,000 and deepening November’s capitulation.
Sentiment has improved but remains cautious. The fear gauge has risen to 25, lifting out of extreme fear but falling short of signaling a broad psychological shift. Only one out of seven major tokens posted gains in the past 24 hours, underscoring the narrowness of the rebound even as total crypto market capitalization holds near $3.1 trillion.
