The amount of Bitcoin (BTC) in the crypto wallets of long-term hodlers is consistently increasing, which indicates that they are confident in the digital asset’s long-term prospects.
This is good news for the BTC community, as it shows that investors believe in the platform’s future.
With more people holding onto their bitcoin, we can expect to see the apex cryptocurrency continue to grow in popularity and value.
Incidentally, the total bitcoin amount held by investors for more than a year has surpassed 11.7 million BTC, reaching a new high, according to a chart shared by Lucas Outumuro, a crypto lead researcher at crypto market analytics platform IntoTheBlock, on March 17.
Outumuro notes that BTC hodlers have been accumulating at an increased scale since Dec. 2021 and as a result their holdings — currently around $492 billion or more than half of the digital assets’ $792 billion market cap — have increased by nearly 20%. Outumuro also points out that the amount of bitcoin held by long-term investors has never been this high.
The amount of #Bitcoin held by long-term investors has never been higher $BTC hodlers have been accumulating, increasing their holdings by nearly 20% since December pic.twitter.com/ffx6k4YIlW
— Lucas Outumuro (@LucasOutumuro) March 17, 2022
While the exact cause for this sudden process of accumulation, which could support further BTC price appreciation from current levels, is unclear, on-chain analytics platform Glassnode has found that there is a correlation between the increase rate of bitcoin accumulation and late-stage bear markets. This usually leads to a supply squeeze which starts the beginning of a new bull run.
Earlier this year, Glassnode reported that the number of BTC addresses having a non-zero balance reached an all-time high of 40 million.
📈 #Bitcoin $BTC Number of Non-Zero Addresses just reached an ATH of 40,276,163
Previous ATH of 40,275,801 was observed on 05 February 2022
View metric:https://t.co/VtoChZbLsa pic.twitter.com/hTnHlN9GeU
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) February 27, 2022
The sudden increase in bitcoin supply — last active 3-5 years ago — corresponds with the peak of the last extended bull market at the start of 2018, which at the time was one of the most exciting and talked-about events in the crypto space.
Price Action
At last check, Bitcoin was trading slightly above the $42,000 level, up less than one percent intraday.
h/t Finbold