Bitcoin (BTC) has already hitting $50,000 on some exchanges but needs to get whales on its side to flip it to definitive support, information suggests.

In a tweet on February. 16, Ki Immature Ju, CEO of on-chain analytics service CryptoQuant, highlighted the so-called "Coinbase premium" every bit one of the terminal hurdles for BTC/USD.

Negative premium slows upward grind

On Tuesday, a clear boxing was emerging within Bitcoin trading as $50,000 stayed de facto out of reach for bulls.

Analyzing the premium, which pits the Coinbase BTC/USD price against the Binance BTC/USDT pair, Ki argued that the until information technology neutralized, college levels would remain unlikely.

Coinbase premium vs. BTC/USD. Source: CryptoQuant

Currently, the premium is negative, meaning that it is cheaper to buy Bitcoin on Coinbase. The result is that traders, and peculiarly whales, will continue to accumulate. Only once the balance stabilizes will momentum appear to tackle $l,000 more convincingly.

"This $50k battle is about Coinbase whales(USD) vs. Stablecoin whales(USDT)," Ki wrote.

"Negative Coinbase premium, simply plentiful stablecoins in exchanges. Negative premium should exist cooled downward to get another leg upward."

Commutation stablecoin balances reaching new all-time highs in contempo days signal to a readiness to exchange for other assets. The biggest stablecoin Tether (USDT) meanwhile has been accelerating its "minting" in recent months with USDT marketplace cap now nearing $33 billion.

Nonetheless, at the time of writing, whales were still lined up to sell at and to a higher place $50,000. A look at Binance orderbook information showed incremental sell orders actualization every $1,000 up to $55,000.

BTC/USD buy and sell orders (Binance). Source: Material Indicators

No "FUD" over GBTC premium

Meanwhile, ane annotator warned against misinterpreting a drop in another premium, this time in institutional investor circles.

Grayscale BTC premium. Source: Bybt.com

Since the start of 2021, the Grayscale Bitcoin premium, which is the price paid past investors for shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), has fallen. Far from signalling reduced interest in Bitcoin, the more competitive buy-in opportunity is a result of more shares beingness bachelor.

"A large $GBTC premium is a sign of stiff demand for bitcoin. Institutional inflows into $GBTC accept been i of the largest drivers of this bull market, so anybody's eyes are on that premium. And now that the premium has collapsed, this has had many marketplace participants worried," macro analyst Alex Krueger explained on Monday.

"The premium has not collapsed due to unpleasing demand for $GBTC (in the secondary market), merely rather due to increasing issuance -- issuance skyrocketed in the last few months, helping reduce the premium with a lag. The $GBTC premium trade only got too crowded."

As Cointelegraph reported, Grayscale has been continually upping its BTC holdings, too restarting buys for Ether (ETH) in Feb after a nearly two-month hiatus. Equally of February. 12, it had Bitcoin avails under management worth $31.1 billion.