Recent Bitcoin Data: Bitcoin untouched for a decade, exchange reserves back to 2018's lows

The highly anticipated third Bitcoin halving event, which concluded on May 12th in Taiwan time amidst much fanfare, has led many industry insiders to speculate on the potential impact of the halving on blockchain stability. However, aside from the hash rate reaching a new high the day before the halving, and the price briefly surging to five figures, this article compiles several key data points for readers to better understand the current state of Bitcoin.

Large Bitcoin Holders Accumulating Rapidly

Cryptocurrency data platform Santiment data shows that so-called "whales" seem to be rapidly accumulating their Bitcoin holdings amid the downturn. On the 20th of this month, Bitcoin dropped from $9,850 to below $9,500. Addresses holding over 100 Bitcoins (highlighted by the orange line in the chart below) collectively increased their holdings by 12,000 Bitcoins within five days.

Not only recently, but as shown in the chart, addresses holding over 100 Bitcoins (highlighted by the orange line) have been steadily accumulating their holdings since the end of April. Does this imply optimism about the price potential after Bitcoin's halving?

Bitcoin Balance on Exchanges Hits 18-Month Low

According to data from Glassnode, the total amount of Bitcoin held in exchange wallets hit an 18-month low earlier this week, slightly above 2.386 million Bitcoins. The amount of Bitcoin held by exchanges has decreased by approximately 11% so far.

The spike in 2018 in the chart was due to Coinbase not being included in the calculation previously. We can see that the Bitcoin reserves on exchanges have fallen below the levels seen in December 2018.

Pierre Rochard, a strategist at Kraken, mentioned in a previous interview with Coindesk that this phenomenon is due to retail investors continuing to accumulate and self-custody Bitcoin for the long term, leading to the continuous decline in Bitcoin holdings on exchanges.

7.78% of Bitcoin Unmoved for 10 Years

According to Glassnode data, nearly 8% (highlighted in purple in the chart) of the total circulating Bitcoin supply is in a dormant state, which includes some lost Bitcoins, but recent data also indicates that users still hold very early Bitcoins.

Earlier this month on the 20th, the blockchain explorer blockchain.com showed that 50 Bitcoins moved for the first time since February 2009, sparking speculation in the community about whether it was Bitcoin's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, but many early participants believe this is unlikely.

In addition, Craig Wright, who has long claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, previously displayed 145 Bitcoin addresses as "his own," but on the 25th, a former miner used private keys to sign messages corresponding to the 145 addresses, rebuking, "Craig Steven Wright is a fraud and an impostor, he does not have the private keys to sign this message."

Bitcoin's total supply cap of 21 million makes it a scarce asset. Even the supply of gold will continue to grow, but Bitcoin will never exceed 21 million, deepening the macro perspective of Bitcoin's scarcity, whether due to lost private keys or users holding early Bitcoin that has never been moved.