Blockchain analytics firm Glassnode has revealed that nearly $38 billion worth of the flagship cryptocurrency bitcoin have left cryptocurrency trading platforms since February of last year, while long-term holders have been accumulating large amounts of tokens.

In a tweet shared with its over 360,000 followers, Glassnode revealed that cryptocurrency exchange balances have fallen to 2.47 million bitcoin, a level that was last seen in August 2018. Since February 2020, the average outflows have been 30,850 BTC per month.

The amount of bitcoin held on cryptocurrency exchange wallets is a closely watched metric in the space as it shows the available supply on the market. When there’s less BTC on exchanges, if demand goes up the price of the cryptocurrency has to go up to meet it.

The blockchain analytics firm, as The Daily Hodl reports, also looked into the bitcoin exchange net position change metric, which tracks the 30-day change of BTC supply held on cryptocurrency exchange wallets. The metric shows outflows have been persistent throughout this year, with the exception of the months in which BTC’s price dropped from its $64,000 high earlier this year.

Current outflows, Glassnode added, are around 22,00 BTC per month. Notably, Glassnode’s data is supported by challenges leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been facing. Binance, earlier today, temporarily halted crypto withdrawals “due to a large backlog.”

The exchange was forced to halt withdrawals twice in the span of a few hours.

Glassnode also shared data that shows long-term holders, which are entities that haven’t moved their BTC on the blockchain for five months or more, have been accumulating more coins. The firm noted that during an “extraordinary accumulation period since March,” long-term holders added 2.42 million BTC to their wallets.

It added long-term holders are taking profits but “not existing en masse.” As CryptoGlobe reported, the founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy highlighted on-chain data that pointed in a bullish direction for Bitcoin and the crypto markets. The analyst said the data was looking “pretty bullish” at this time and would likely beat out a bearish scenario for the next six months. 

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