Bitcoin Surges Past $90,000 as U.S. Investor Demand Soars, Driven by Spot ETF Activity

Bitcoin recently broke through the $90,000 resistance level during the early U.S. trading hours. It quickly climbed even higher, surpassing $93,000. This surge was driven by strong demand, as shown by the Coinbase Premium Index hitting its highest level since April.

After testing the $90,000 mark several times earlier this week, Bitcoin (BTC) finally pushed through that barrier on Wednesday morning. Once it broke that level, the price continued to rise swiftly.

This significant price movement aligned perfectly with the opening of U.S. traditional markets at 9:30 a.m. E.T. This suggests that robust demand from U.S. investors played a crucial role in pushing prices higher.

The Coinbase Premium Index, which is a key indicator of U.S. demand, rose to 0.2. That’s its highest reading since April, according to CryptoQuant data. This increase highlights the strong buying pressure coming from American investors. The index measures the price difference for Bitcoin on Coinbase, a platform popular among U.S.-based investors, compared to prices on offshore exchanges like Binance.

While it’s not entirely clear who the buyers are, U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) kicked off the day with impressive trading volumes. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), the largest spot ETF with $40 billion in assets, traded about $1.2 billion in the first hour. This made it the fourth most-traded product among all ETFs, according to Barchart data.

At the time of this report, Bitcoin had pulled back slightly to $92,200. That’s still a nearly 7% increase over the past 24 hours, outperforming the broader CoinDesk 20 Index, which rose by 3.5%. During the same period, Ethereum’s ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) saw gains of 1.6% and 2.7%, respectively.

The rally is largely driven by spot buying. The spot cumulative volume delta (CVD), which measures the net difference between buying and selling volumes, continues to show strong buying flows. Most of the net volume is coming from buyers. Each time there’s been a spike in spot CVD, it has corresponded with a rise in Bitcoin’s price. This suggests that the current rally is sustainable because it’s not based on futures market activity, according to CoinDesk analyst James Van Straten.