Nearly $125 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) are now considered “ancient,” or untouched for at least seven years, according to top blockchain analytics firm Glassnode.
Glassnode says that in all of Bitcoin’s history, only 8.3% of all coins that become ancient have ever been spent.
Of the BTC that remain ancient, Glassnode says they could be either dormant or lost completely.
“Since the inception of Bitcoin, only 4.25 million coins have reached the status of Ancient Supply (7+ Years).
Remarkably, only 356,000 ancient coins have been spent, equivalent to 8.3% of the all-time ancient supply total, whilst 3.9 million (91.7%) coins currently remain dormant or lost.”
The analytics firm also takes a look at its supply-per-whale metric, which looks at the average amount of BTC held by whales. It finds that the average BTC owned by whales has remained relatively static for multiple months now, but that each whale is owning a smaller and smaller percentage of the Bitcoin market cap on average.
“Following the recent surge in price action, the Bitcoin supply per whale has reached an equilibrium, remaining stable around a value of ~5,350 BTC/whale.
However, despite stability in supply held, the percentage of the market cap owned by the whale cohort (46%) is declining.”
Glassnode also takes note of its supply in profit/loss metric, which keeps track of the amount of coins that are sitting at a loss and at a profit. According to the firm, the metric is showing that market participants’ positions are more and more in the green as time goes on, indicating that a sell-off event might be on the table.
“With the strong opening to 2023, the aggregate market has confidently transitioned out of a regime of unrealized loss, towards one of unrealized profit, shown by the sharp divergence between supply held in profit vs. loss. As this takes place, the incentive to take profits grows.”
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