Bitcoin broke over the $46,000 level twice in the last 24 hours, for the first time since the SEC’s approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, signaling a bullish return in most cryptocurrencies, led by BTC. In particular, Bitcoin investors appear to be gearing up for action as Bitcoin’s next halving approaches, with an interesting time for withdrawal from the exchanges.
Serious money has been moving out of the exchanges over the past 30 days, as evidenced by on-chain data. As a result, Bitcoin balances on several exchanges have fallen drastically to their lowest level in six years.
The percentage of Bitcoin supply on exchanges falls to the lowest level since 2017
A large portion of Bitcoin holders have been holding onto their coins for a long time. According to IntoTheBlock data, About 69% of Bitcoin holders hold their coins for more than a year.
Data from on-chain analytics platform Santiment also showed that Bitcoin supply on exchanges recently fell to 5.3% of total circulating supply for the first time since December 2017, indicating that 94.7% of supply is currently in private custody. This metric is particularly interesting as the total circulating supply of BTC has grown by 2.84 million since December 2017.
As Santiment’s chart shows, supply on the exchanges has been in freefall since January 10, around when the first spot Bitcoin ETFs went live in the US. This isn’t surprising, given the sentiment surrounding it Bitcoin turned completely bullish during this period, despite a prolonged price battle.
📈 #Bitcoin‘s price dominance has continued to grow #altcoins, while its market value rose to $45.5K today. Traders remain skeptical of this asset for the third week in a row. This is the lowest ratio of $BTC on exchanges since December 2017. https://t.co/XC3UK258lM pic.twitter.com/4MwvXE28RC
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) February 8, 2024
Similarly, whale transaction tracker Whale Alerts has revealed large periods of BTC leaving crypto exchanges into private wallets over the past month. Notably, Bitcoin’s dominance over altcoins has been gaining ground, with institutional demand for Bitcoin also increasing following ETF approval.
🚨 🚨 🚨 1,150 #BTC (51,452,847 USD) transferred from #Coinbase to unknown wallethttps://t.co/bQl4vCkifM
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 8, 2024
This mass exodus of BTC from crypto exchanges is a signal of long-term holders feel more comfortable keeping their coins in-house rather than on exchanges.
Total Bitcoin withdrawals from the exchanges over the past seven days amounted to $8.64 billion, surpassing an inflow of $8.42 billion by $220 million. Wallets with more than 1,000 BTC have also collected 1.03% of the total circulating supply in the past month.
Withdrawals from exchanges are generally a good phenomenon for crypto assets as they reduce the amount of cryptocurrencies readily available for sale. Less available BTC means less selling pressure and the possibility of its value increasing based on supply and demand.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $46,250, up 4% in the past 24 hours and 7.15% in the past seven days. The cryptocurrency is currently focused for the $50,000 mark, which it could reach very quickly if the The accumulation strategy continues.
BTC price crosses $47,000 | Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview.com
Featured image from Forbes, chart from Tradingview.com
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