Long-term holders continue to increase their share of total bitcoin volume amid renewed market volatility, Glassnode notes in its latest report.
To separate short-term and long-term holders, analysts focused on the 155-day mark – in mid-April, Bitcoin was trading at about $ 60,000 and was still heading for a new high. In other words, coins purchased after the highs are considered short-term investors, and before long-term ones.
As shown in the chart below, at last week’s highs of about $ 52,800, over 16.8% of coins were in the wallets of short-term holders and were profitable. This means that there has been a large accumulation of cryptocurrency in the range from the lows of around $ 29,000 in recent months.
At the same time, the share of bitcoins in the wallets of long-term investors reached 79.5%. The indicator was at similar levels in October before the start of the bullish stage.
In absolute terms, the number of coins in bitcoin wallets of long-term holders is now the maximum for the entire existence of bitcoin and is 12.97 million. Peaks for this indicator usually correspond to the late stages of a bear market and herald the beginning of a bullish cycle, the authors note.
At the same time, long-term holders also bought bitcoins near the highs and are in no hurry to spend them. Currently, about 421 thousand bitcoins per month are being classified as long-term holders in wallets according to the established classification.
“Since we have already established that over 16.8% of the issue was purchased in the recent range between $ 29,000 and 40,000, we can reasonably expect that this trend will continue from October to December (155 days from the consolidation of May-July)”, – write Glassnode.
In general, the authors consider the current stage in the development of the bitcoin market to be “unique”. For most of the history of cryptocurrency, there has been an increase in the volume of coins in free circulation. After the final surrender of the bear market in 2018, the changes became neutral, and since the collapse in March 2020, there has been a trend towards an increase in the number of illiquid coins moving from exchange wallets to the wallets of long-term holders.
After a moderate inflow of bitcoins to the wallets of cryptocurrency exchanges in May 2021, the growth in the number of illiquid coins resumed:
“It looks like despite significant volatility throughout 2021, long-term investors continue to accumulate bitcoins and keep their coins in cold storage,” concludes Glassnode.
