Amount of non-zero BTC addresses continue to make all-time highs
The supply-side dynamics of the Bitcoin network continue to demonstrate strong adoption as there are now more addresses with a positive BTC balance than ever before.
2022 will be a year in which institutional and retail cryptocurrency adoption, and tradngi in particular, will continue to grow. Fintech stalwarts PayPal and Square — along with mobile stock-trading platform Robinhood — have all made it easier to buy, sell and trade crypto. And public companies like MicroStrategy, Tesla, Galaxy and Square all added significant amounts of Bitcoin to their balance sheets in 2021
On-chain statistics through February have suggested positive sentiment for Bitcoin as addresses with a non-zero balance of BTC reached an all-time high.
Additionally, those wallets with a positive BTC balance are increasingly holding their coins. The amount of BTC circulating supply last moved between three and five years ago reached a four-year high of just over 2.8 million coins, according to data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode.
The number of addresses with a non-zero balance was on a steep increase through 2019 and 2020 until the middle of 2021, when growth appeared to have plateaued at about 35 million addresses. However, growth in this metric has spiked since the beginning of 2022, leading to a new ATH of 40,276,163 according to Glassnode.
The sudden spike in BTC supply that was last active three to five years ago coincides with the peak of the last extended bull market at the beginning of 2018.
Among the addresses with a non-zero balance, Glassnode reported that 817,445 of them have at least one whole BTC, a 10-month high on Feb. 28.
Supply-side dynamics in Bitcoin have provided several metrics of note this past month. FSInsight reported on Feb. 9 that 75% of the BTC circulating supply was illiquid because it had not moved for an extended period of time. The financial research firm’s report described the situation as a “powder keg” that is ready to blow as soon as a moderate amount of BTC is bought on the market.
