As more and more institutions and individuals familiarize themselves with cryptocurrencies and are educated in this regard, global crypto adoption grows. This is reflected in the number of wallets that had risen throughout time, soaring from 1 thousand in 2010, when Bitcoin received little recognition, to a striking 1.3 million in 2021, the year that marked the crypto boom when the market grew by 300%. By March of this year, despite the bearish sentiment spurred in 2022, over one million investors accommodated Bitcoin in their wallets. The depreciating prices of cryptocurrencies acted like a double-edged knife. Many in the crypto-savvy community took advantage of Bitcoin’s discount prices, setting up wallets. Those who already owned a fraction of BTC seized the opportunity to round the number up to 1 whole Bitcoin. Consequently, some investors who already owned the coin chose to sell their tokens to reinvest the funds in another asset.
It’s important to mention that a wallet works just like an email. You can have one or more addresses with bitcoins, each with its purpose, just like you can have different email addresses. Therefore, one address is not equal to one owner.
Additionally, this number doesn’t reflect wallets or addresses with one whole token. Because a Bitcoin can be divided into smaller units, also known as satoshis (sats), it is big news that the number of wallets or addresses holding an entire Bitcoin or more has reached 1 million.
Bitcoin demand is increasing in tandem with its scarcity
The number of “whole-coiner” addresses has grown by over 100% since 2016, with a significant portion added in the last few months. It surged to around 800,000 addresses in the previous bullish phase and kept increasing as investors accommodated the token in their wallets during the bearish times of late 2022 and, mostly, 2023. This comes as a consequence of the falling cryptocurrency prices, which made it more appealing to bargain hunters and investors looking to capitalize on them when the market recovered.
However, these numbers are not an indication of Bitcoin’s future performance. So, make unbiased decisions and don’t invest out of FOMO should you ever dip your toes into the volatile cryptocurrency waters.
As Bitcoin wallets with over 1 BTC plateau at more than 1 million, the number of Bitcoins available decreases. This comes from its fixed upper limit of 21 million coins. When Satoshi Nakamoto developed Bitcoin’s white paper, he established a limit on the number of bitcoins that could be issued to maintain their scarcity and control the inflation that unlimited supplies bring. The rarer an asset is and the more demand it faces, its value grows. By keeping the leading cryptocurrency scarce, its creator ensured its value would hold steady. This is one of the reasons why Bitcoin is dubbed as digital gold.
Bitcoin’s dormancy reached new levels
Bitcoin can be traded actively to benefit from its massive price fluctuations and make quick profits. However, this strategy requires a level of skill and knowledge, as well as vigilance to know when it’s the best time to get rid of it in exchange for another asset. At the same time, given the stability it has demonstrated by weathering the storms throughout time, it also serves as a store of value that can protect funds against inflation and prevent the risks that central systems expose customers’ funds to.
According to Glassnode, a data provider, around 40,000% of the total number of bitcoins have been dormant for the past three years, meaning that they weren’t used in transactions or moved. All of these come despite the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market and unfavorable events that impacted the price of the leading cryptocurrency.
It has broken a new record in Bitcoin’s history and suggests that cryptocurrency owners adopt a long-term investment strategy to keep their assets safe for the foreseeable future. This decreases supply, and if the demand grows, the owned token becomes increasingly valuable.
The number of non-zero addresses has exceeded 44 million
As the number of addresses with one or more BTC reached 1 million, the usage of wallets has been simultaneously growing. 2023 witnessed the moment that the number of non-zero balances breached the 44m mark – a growth of over 11 million addresses since 2020. Beginning with the same year, around 200,000 addresses with one entire BTC or more have emerged as the token was brought down from its 2021 highs.
This comes as an aftermath of Bitcoin’s price, which decreased by over 65% last year, as well as the increasing number of Bitcoin-friendly companies and its institutionalization.
$80 billion worth of BTC may be forever lost
Even though Bitcoin is a safer option regarding the security of storage as it is kept digitally in a cold wallet or physically written on a piece of paper, it also stands a chance of going missing, as it can be stolen, burned, lost, or forgotten, reducing the number of in-circulation coins. According to current estimates, one-fifth of Bitcoin has vanished, having been moved for almost ten years. One explanation is that Bitcoin’s creator issued approximately 1.1 million coins after its launch and hasn’t used them since, indicating that they probably won’t put them into circulation for unknown reasons.
Another reason many bitcoins are out of circulation is that their owners have lost access to their accounts because of lost or forgotten recovery phrases or private keys. Any owner who can’t regain access to these means their funds are lost until they re-enter their rights.
Lastly, investors prepare for Bitcoin’s next halving
One reason the number of addresses and wallets holding over one Bitcoin has grown may be that the next halving is approaching. The halving is an update that cuts the BTC reward gained by miners for verifying transactions by half and is an event that may impact the cryptocurrency’s price and market sentiment if we analyze past halvings. However, institutional investors have their say in how the market reacts to this event, so let’s keep an eye on Bitcoin to see where it’s headed.
The number of “whole-coiners” Bitcoin wallets has surpassed its 1m mark, and the market is “greedy” these days.
