Why did Bitcoin fall below $33K? Coinbase whales might have the answer
Bitcoin (BTC) slid under $33,000 for the first time in over a week on Jan. 21 as selling pressure gathered to drive price action lower. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView showed BTC/USD continuing its downtrend on Thursday, dropping 7.% on the day and failing to bounce off $33,000 support.
The latest move, which brings Bitcoin down over 13% versus its highs from Tuesday, came amid increased selling at Coinbase Pro, the professional trading arm of United States cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. As Cointelegraph reported, major spikes in volume at Coinbase Pro had accompanied price volatility in recent weeks. This time, it was a dip in the so-called “Coinbase Premium” which signalled selling was underway — the difference in price between the BTC/USD pair at the venue and others suddenly decreased.
“It seems $BTC sellers came from #Coinbase. Coinbase Premium Index has been a negative value since an hour ago,” Ki Young Ju, CEO of on-chain analytics resource CryptoQuant, summarized on Twitter uploading the accompanying chart. Coinbase whales might want $BTC to go lower for consolidation.” A day earlier, Ki had highlighted a corresponding increase in deposits across exchanges from whales, indicating a potential desire to trade or sell BTC at prices at or below the mid-range of its trading corridor between $30,000 and $40,000.
Another trend since Bitcoin began ascending to new all-time highs was a transfer of wealth from small investors to whales, the latter buying up the supply during every price retracement. Despite the sell-off, it was buyers hitting the headlines this week, chief among the investment giant Grayscale, which fixed its biggest-ever one-day BTC purchase worth more than $600 million. In the 24 hours to the end of Wednesday, the company increased its balance by a further 8,000 BTC — far more than the supply being added to the market by miners.
Top Cryptocurrencies with Price Predictions
| # | Crypto | Prediction | Accuracy | CVIX | Price | 24h | 7d | Market Cap | 7d price change | |
| 1 |  BTC |
Bitcoin predictions | 60.8% | 88 | $16 537.50 | 0.10% | -0.06% | $317 822 304 352 |  |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 |  ETH |
Ethereum predictions | 59.2% | 86 | $1 215.18 | 0.17% | 3.58% | $148 706 732 936 |  |
|
| 3 |  USDT |
Tether predictions | 91.6% | 1 | $0.999553 | 0% | 0.06% | $65 333 494 729 |  |
|
| 4 |  BNB |
Binance Coin predictions | 66.8% | 66 | $311.77 | -0.81% | 15.95% | $49 874 568 821 |  |
|
| 5 |  USDC |
USD Coin predictions | 92.4% | 1 | $1.000145 | 0% | 0.01% | $44 197 320 437 |  |
|
| 6 |  BUSD |
Binance USD predictions | 94.4% | 1 | $1.000525 | 0.06% | 0.04% | $22 413 293 222 |  |
|
| 7 |  XRP |
XRP predictions | 59.6% | 80 | $0.400048 | -0.72% | 7.25% | $20 121 884 534 |  |
|
| 8 |  DOGE |
Dogecoin predictions | 54.8% | 92 | $0.103633 | 13.34% | 28.16% | $13 749 128 535 |  |
|
| 9 |  ADA |
Cardano predictions | 64% | 82 | $0.317554 | 0.33% | -0.14% | $10 934 620 515 |  |
|
| 10 |  STETH |
Lido stETH predictions | 93.6% | 1 | $2 941.39 | -0.40% | -3.32% | $10 258 752 564 |  |
|
| 11 |  MATIC |
Polygon predictions | 68% | 65 | $0.858219 | 0.62% | 3.68% | $7 495 959 645 |  |
|
| 12 |  DOT |
Polkadot predictions | 65.2% | 71 | $5.39 | 0.20% | -1.00% | $6 139 923 968 |  |
|
| 13 |  DAI |
Dai predictions | 95.2% | 1 | $1.000045 | -0.03% | 0.01% | $5 726 562 394 |  |
|
| 14 |  LTC |
Litecoin predictions | 66.4% | 64 | $76.42 | 0.50% | 24.32% | $5 479 552 153 |  |
|
| 15 |  WTRX |
Wrapped TRON predictions | 60.8% | 82 | $0.053646 | 1.63% | 5.42% | $5 454 488 141 |  |
