Despite the Bitcoin markets soaring to a five-month high, long-term Bitcoin investors are reluctant to sell, according to on-chain analytics firm Glassnode.
Glassnode reported in its “Week on Chain” report on Oct. 11 that “long-term holders” – BTC wallets with no withdrawals for more than 155 days now own approximately 13.3 million BTC or 70% of Bitcoin’s supply.
Long-term holders have boosted their total hoard by more than 2.37 million BTC (approximately $134 billion at current rates) in the last seven months, according to the research.
Long-term whales are amassing 12.7 times more BTC than is created as a new supply, according to Glassnode, with only 186,000 BTC newly minted by miners during the same timeframe.
Despite the refusal of long-term holders to sell, Glassnode observed an increase in on-chain activity as Bitcoin’s price rose to a local high of $57,860 on Oct. 12.
The number of active addresses on the blockchain increased 19 percent to 291,000 in October, reaching levels not seen since the run-up to December 2020’s parabolic bull-run. The increase in activity, according to Glassnode, could portend further bullish momentum in the future:
“More active market participants have historically correlated with growing interest in the asset during early stage bull markets.”
The median transaction size increased to around 1.3 BTC per transfer, indicating growth in institutional-sized capital flows on-chain, according to the research. The median transaction size in August was as low as 0.6 BTC per transfer.
Last week, the Bitcoin network reached a new high of $31 billion in daily value settlement.
On Oct. 12, Glassnode revealed that Bitcoin balances on centralized exchanges have dropped to a three-year low of 2.4 million BTC, indicating that many investors are hodling for better prices.
Whales may be ahead-running the BTCmarkets in anticipation of a Bitcoin ETF approval this month, according to industry analysts.
