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Bitcoin's Rise to $52K Is Driven by Strong U.S. Demand, the Coinbase Price Premium Suggests
Massive inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs made headlines recently, but other metrics showcase U.S. investors' appetite for the asset.
Updated Mar 8, 2024, 9:38 p.m. Published Feb 15, 2024, 7:39 p.m.
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- Bitcoin's price premium on Coinbase hit a 9-month high, indicating demand from U.S. investors, CryptoQuant data showed.
- The recent price rally to $52,000 occurred mostly during U.S. trading sessions, with modest price appreciation during Asian and European hours, 10xResearch's Markus Thielen noted.
Bitcoin's latest surge to $52,000 was mainly driven by U.S. investor's strong demand for the largest digital asset, trading data shows.
While massive inflows into the new spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) dominated the headlines, BTC has also been trading at the highest premium in 9 months on the U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase.
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The so-called "Coinbase Premium Index" – which measures the price difference for bitcoin on Coinbase compared to Binance, the leading exchange by trading volume – rose to 0.12 Thursday, its highest reading since May 2023, according to data from analytics firm CryptoQuant. "High premium values could indicate US investors' strong buying pressure in Coinbase," CryptoQuant said.
Meanwhile, on Coinbase, institutional brokers seem to be fulfilling client purchase orders for #Bitcoin.https://t.co/CBvH58cfIG pic.twitter.com/Opl3rAoCuR
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) February 15, 2024
Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, also noted that the bulk of bitcoin's price appreciation happened during U.S. trading hours,
"During the last 30 days, BTC has rallied +17%, with 11% of those 17% occurring during US trading hours," Thielen said in a Thursday market report, adding that both Asian and European hours accounted only for a 3% price increase.
Bitcoin surpassed $52,000 this week regaining the $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time since Dec. 2021, while spot BTC ETFs attracted nearly $500 million daily net inflows. BTC is up 22% over the past month, CoinDesk data shows, outperforming the broad-market CoinDesk20 Index's (CD20) 15% advance.
Read more: Bitcoin ETF First Month Is in the Books: How It Went and What Comes Next
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Abu Dhabi wealth funds bitcoin ETF holdings topped $1 billion at end of 2025
Both Mubadala Investment Company and Al Warda Investments lifted investments in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) in the fourth quarter.
What to know:
- Two major Abu Dhabi investment firms, Mubadala Investment Company and Al Warda Investments, increased their holdings of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in the fourth quarter of 2025 as bitcoin’s price fell.
- Mubadala lifted its IBIT stake to 12.7 million shares and Al Warda to 8.2 million shares.
- Together, they held a combined position that exceeded $1 billion at the end of 2025 but has since declined to just over $800 million amid further bitcoin losses in 2026.
