According to data provided by Glassnode, long-term holders currently hold almost 14.5M bitcoin (BTC). LTHs have been on a gradual accumulation spree in the past year and a half despite the prolonged bear market.
Blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant has recently revealed that institutional investors (hedge funds, pension funds, commercial banks, insurance companies, and more) have also shown an increasing appetite for holding the primary cryptocurrency in the long run.
Glassnode’s figures showed that BTC investors willing to hold the asset for the long term have purchased significant amount between April and early July 2023. The largest crypto asset has performed quite well during those months, as it recently closed its second consecutive quarter in the green for the first time since 2021.
Long-term holders also showed rising interest in BTC between September 2022 and the end of the year. Moreover, their accumulation efforts continued even during the FTX meltdown in November, which shook the entire crypto industry to its core.
In fact, other market participants, such as those holding less than 1 BTC (described as “shrimps”) and those with no more than 10 BTC (“crabs”), also bought significant amounts of bitcoin shortly after the collapse of the once-prominent cryptocurrency exchange.
Overall, long-term holders have amassed a total of 1.01M BTC over the past 602 days and now possess 14.47M BTC (around 75% of the circulating supply). The figure is just 20K BTC less than the all-time high.
It is worth mentioning that long-term holders were even more aggressive during the bull run in 2021. They accumulated over 2.4M BTC between April and November 2021, when bitcoin’s USD valuation was considerably higher than now, peaking at almost $70,000.
As revealed by CryptoQuant, the institutional accumulation of bitcoin has been on the rise, too. The analytics company further outlined that investment firms, hedge funds, private funds, and others seek to join the ecosystem for the long run:
“Analyzing the holdings of these funds provides valuable insights into the market dynamics and investor sentiment…Monitoring fund holdings not only provides an understanding of the market sentiment but also highlights the confidence institutional investors have in bitcoin as a long-term asset.”
One reason behind that enthusiasm could be the long list of financial giants which recently filed to launch a spot BTC ETF in the States. The spree was started by the world’s largest asset manager – BlackRock. Fidelity Digital Assets, Invesco, WisdomTree, Valkyrie, and more followed suit a few days later, infusing optimism and hope in the entire crypto sector.
