Bitcoin price nears $44K as large Coinbase outflows fail to stop the sell-off

Bitcoin (BTC) hit fresh local lows on Feb. 26 despite what appear to be ongoing largescal institutional buy-ins.

New lows despite bullish signs

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView showed BTC/USD $44,150 during Friday trading — last seen two weeks ago — after a rebound to $50,000 fizzled overnight.

Bitcoin had seen good news in the form of asset manager Stone Ridge planning to become the first Bitcoin mutual fund, along with major corporate purchases from MicroStrategy and Square. These, however, failed to stem the bearish mood, with 24-hour losses standing at near 10% at the time of writing.

"Everyone wants 42k, so we probably just go up now or drop to 38k on a savage wick. Crowd rarely gets what it wants," popular trader Scott Melker summarized on Twitter.

Cointelegraph Markets analyst Michaël van de Poppe had prevously forecast ultimate support lying at around $38,000 should Bitcoin not find buying volume at higher levels.

"Bitcoin doesn't look too great for a bull continuation coming period," he said on Thursday.

"Still, retest at $54,000-55,000 could happen, but I'm cautious when we get there. If we lose $47,000, then I'm looking at $42,000-44,000 and $37,000-38,500 next. That should be the low."

Institutions are still buying: data

Data from the professional trading arm of U.S. exchange Coinbase meanwhile showed another major tranch of BTC leaving its books for a private or custody wallet — something which traditionally suggests institutional buying.

The latest spike of 12,100 BTC is the second this week, such large volumes themselves being a rarity, a fresh chart from on-chain monitoring resource CryptoQuant confirms.

The so-called "Coinbase premium," the difference in price between Coinbase and Binance, flipped to negative for several brief moments as Bitcoin dropped to nearly $44,200. 

As Cointelegraph reported citing CryptoQuant, whales appear to favor buying at current price levels, with the result that a dip much below $44,000 would be "unlikely," according to CEO Ki Young Ju.

On Thursday, Ki described the last Coinbase Pro spike, which occurred at $48,000, as "the strongest bullish signal" he had yet seen in Bitcoin.