Data shows that long-term bitcoin HODLers do not appear to be selling their holdings, even as the price of bitcoin tops $55,000 – more than double its previous all-time high near $19,000. Newcomers, on the other hand, have been taking profits.
As reported by Cointelegraph, Unchained Capital’s “Hodlwaves” chart – which visually illustrates BTC wallets according to their last activity on the Bitcoin blockchain – has shown an increase in long and short-term movements.
The chart shows the number of coins moved over the last 30 to 90 days is at its highest level since the 2018 bear market. Addresses holding coins for these periods represent around 15% of the circulating supply and make up the largest segment of wallets. Wallets that have been inactive for between three and five years now make up the second-largest segment, with 13.5% of all BTC being in these wallets.
Bitcoin that hasn’t moved in at least three years has been growing so far this year, with some speculating that the data shows investors have been holding since late 2017. This means they did not sell during the 2018 bear market, which saw BTC decline 84% from its then all-time high, and are not selling even after its dramatic recovery.
The CTO of on-chain crypto analytics firm Glassnode, Rafael Schultze-Kraft, suggested the data shows those who bought BTC over the last two years are taking profits, while those who have bought over three years ago are still accumulating.
It’s worth noting that the Hodlwaves chart shows a significant drop in the percentage of bitcoin’s supply inactive between one and two years, which could mean those who bought during the bear market have been taking profits.
The price of bitcoin surged past its previous all-time high as corporate adoption has kept on growing. Companies like Tesla and MicroStrategy have allocated a portion of their cash reserves to the cryptocurrency to hedge against inflation and currency debasement.
Bitcoin’s bull run has seen price predictions turn increasingly more bullish, with former Goldman Sachs executive and Real Vision co-founder Raoul Pal revealing he believes the total market capitalization of bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies will grow to surpass $100 trillion
The CEO of San Francisco-based cryptocurrency trading platform Kraken, Jesse Powell, has revealed he believes the price of bitcoin could hit $1 million over the next 10 years, and in the long-term could “go to infinity.”
Featured image via Pixabay.
