On-chain data shows that Bitcoin long-term holders now own 76.2% of the entire supply, a new all-time high for the cryptocurrency.
76.2% Of Bitcoin Supply Now Locked In Diamond Hand Holdings In a new post on X, Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards talked about the trend in the supply of BTC long-term holders. The “long-term holders” (LTHs) refer to the investors who have been holding onto their coins since at least 155 days ago.
Generally, the longer a holder keeps their coins dormant, the less likely they become to move these coins at any point. Because of this reason, the LTH group includes the investors with the strongest resolve.
Historically, the LTHs have kept quiet regardless of what’s going on in the wider market, as they don’t easily get enticed by profit-taking opportunities and ignore FUD situations. This resilience has earned this cohort the popular name “diamond hands.”
The simplest way to track the behavior of the LTHs is through the combined supply that they are holding in their wallets right now.
Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the percentage of the total circulating Bitcoin supply that these HODLers own currently:
Looks like the value of the metric has been going up in recent months | Source: @caprioleio on X As displayed in the above graph, the supply held by the Bitcoin long-term holders has seen an uptrend in the past year or so, suggesting that HODLing has become more dominant among investors.
Something to keep in mind is that the LTH supply going up doesn’t mean that these HODLers are buying right now. Rather, what it reflects is that some accumulation happened 155 days ago; the coins have only matured enough to be part of the cohort today.
After the latest rise that the indicator has registered recently, it has reached the 76.2% mark, and in the process, has broken the all-time high (ATH) set back in 2015.
The current value implies that the Bitcoin short-term holders (STHs), the hands who are weaker in resolve and make regular trades, control less than a quarter of the supply. “Less liquid supply means the same people are bidding on less coins,” notes Edwards. “You do the math.”
An interesting fact is that since the supply of the cryptocurrency is always heading up as miners produce new coins by mining blocks, the supply today is notably higher than back in 2015 when the LTH supply hit its previous ATH.
This naturally means that the pure amount of capital that’s locked in the holdings of these diamond hands is now also much more at a similar percentage of the supply held.
With such an unprecedented dominance of the LTHs in the market, it now remains to be seen how the cryptocurrency’s price will develop in the long term.
BTC Price Bitcoin’s rally has hit a pause in the past few days as the cryptocurrency hasn’t been able to gain any significant momentum above $28,400.
BTC has been moving sideways recently | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView Featured image from Shutterstock.com, charts from TradingView.com, Glassnode.com
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Keshav Verma Keshav is a Physics graduate who has been employed as a writer with Bitcoinist since June 2021. He is passionate about writing and through the years, he has gained experience working in a variety of niches. Keshav holds an active interest in the cryptocurrency market, with on-chain analysis being an area he particularly likes to research and write about.