Analyzing the BTC blockchain, it appears that the volume of bitcoins inactive for at least a year is at its highest since 2016.
In fact, according to an analysis by Glassnode, 60.63% of all existing BTC have not moved in the last 12 months.
This is well over half, and not much less than two thirds, which is an indication that there are ever more holders.
In other words, for four years there have never been more bitcoins held than there are now, with probably most owners preferring to keep them rather than use or exchange them.
According to Glassnode, this would indicate a consolidation of investors’ BTC assets, and in particular those who bought during the fall of the price in 2018, now reluctant to make a profit by renouncing their bitcoin positions.
Glassnode has also developed another chart, called “Bitcoin Monthy HODL Waves”, in which BTC are grouped into segments for the duration of their inactivity period.
This graph also shows how at this moment most bitcoins are inactive, particularly in the 2 to 3-year inactivity range, i.e. the one corresponding to the BTC purchased from the end of 2017 to mid-2018, and never used since. Only in 2016 and 2017 was this range so wide.
In fact, this range has grown by 26% since the beginning of the year.
One hypothesis is that these are partly retail investors who bought during the 2017 bubble and are no longer able to move them.
Since the beginning of the year, the total volume of BTC stored in so-called “dormant addresses” has also risen: from around 13 million in January, we have now grown to 17 million, an increase of almost 31% in six months. It was not since the second half of 2017 that there has been such a significant increase in this metric in such a short time.
According to several analysts, these could be signs of a possible bullish market, as they suggest an increase in investors not willing to sell their BTC at this time.
Surely among these are in fact many who are literally no longer able to move them, but the result remains the same: a possible reduction in supply on the trading markets, which in turn has already shrunk following the May 11th halving.
Therefore, bitcoin seems to be increasingly used as a store of value, rather than as a means of payment, and at a time of great uncertainty on the financial markets, together with the powerful expansionary manoeuvres of the central banks, all this suggests that it can continue to play this role in the coming months.
