The supply of Bitcoin in the hands of satoshi accumulators has increased. Whales have accumulated a balance of about 12 million BTC in the last three years.
A Glassnode report on the evolution of the Bitcoin market says that “it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore Bitcoin.” According to the study, the supply in the hands of holders with balances less than 1 BTC has grown by 1.23%. However, the document says that the supply varies little in the addresses with a higher balance.
The supply in the hands of holders with more than 100 BTC has remained practically constant in the last three years.
For one thing, Bitcoin peaked at USD 61,578 on March 13th. On the other hand, the cryptocurrency reached the minimum value of USD 53,686 on March 15th.
Supply of Holders that Accumulate Satoshis Has Not Stopped Growing
Three years ago, addresses with balances less than 1 BTC accumulated 3.97% of the Bitcoin supply. The supply has not stopped growing as the holders that Glassnode calls “satoshi accumulators” have accumulated an additional 1.23%. For that reason, at the moment, they have a total of 5.20% of bitcoins mined so far.
Holders with balances between 0.1 BTC and 1 BTC have 4% of the supply. Those that have between 0.01 BTC and 0.1 BTC represent 0.99%. The rest, with lower balances, do not reach 0.2%.
Supply in the Hands of Whales Remains Almost Unchanged
Glassnode designates dolphins as holders between 100 BTC and 1,000 BTC. By joining the largest holders (whales), they accumulate 62.62% of the Bitcoin supply.
Whales themselves have a balance of between 1,000 BTC and 10,000 BTC. Humpback whales have between 10,000 BTC and 100,000 BTC, and a tiny group has a balance greater than 100,000 BTC.
The supply that this group of large holders accumulates has remained almost unchanged since 2018. The total that the group has accumulated is about 12 million BTC.
Bitcoin and the Transfer of Wealth between Holders
According to the study, there has been a rearrangement of cold wallets and Bitcoin custodian deals. As part of this, large-balance wallets have experienced BTC shifts between the various holder categories.
Before the all-time high of USD 20,000 in mid-December, there were roughly equal and opposite changes in the largest balances. Glassnode found that (1) the balance of octopuses and fish (between 10 and 100 BTC) decreased by 56,000 BTC, (2) that of dolphins and sharks (between 100 and 1,000 BTC) increased by 331,000 BTC, and (3) that of whales and humpback whales decreased by 307,000 BTC.
There is a slight decrease of 32,000 BTC, that is, only 0.24% of the supply is in the hands of these groups. However, satoshi accumulators managed to increase their balance by 29,800 BTC, proving a transfer of wealth to this group of holders.
According to analyst Willy Woo, Bitcoin is still far from its all-time high of the current bullish cycle. He predicts that the pioneering cryptocurrency will again challenge the price peak above USD 61,000 per unit.
By Alexander Salazar
