Bitcoin Hodlers Remain Resolute Despite Price Movements 

Speculative hodlers are known to play a significant role in the market, as well as on the price of the asset itself. When Bitcoin holders fail to move their holdings, trading volumes across exchanges could go down, and the asset which they keep their hopes of rising on will continue to lull. That seems to be one of the reasons why Bitcoin is in its current state; holders aren’t budging from their stance. 

On December 2, Rhythm, a popular cryptocurrency analyst, published statistics on Twitter, which showed activity on the Bitcoin network over time. According to the sheet, about 60 percent of the total Bitcoin in circulation has remained fixed in its wallet for over a year, as demand among investors continues to increase. Out of the total 18.08 million Bitcoins available currently, Rhythm showed that about 11.58 million has stayed put, as hodlers refuse to give up on the asset. 

11,580,00 bitcoin have not moved in over a year.

Even with a 85% increase in price during that time, those millions of bitcoin were not sold or traded.

Hodlers of last resort are insane. pic.twitter.com/KTpeDrLlOO

— Rhythm (@Rhythmtrader) December 1, 2019

As the data shows, the amount of dormant Bitcoin as a percentage of the entire supply of the asset has shown an upsurge over the past few years. The trend hasn’t bucked, and in spite of successive bull and bear cycles that have hit the crypto market over the past 24 months, hodlers have shown a strong desire to keep their assets and wait out the storm, as opposed to spending it. 

Possible Inaccuracies 

Of course, the statistics can’t be completely accurate. There are those assets that have been left in their wallets due to neglect, a loss of interest, experimentation, and the carelessness of users who lost their wallet passwords and private keys and, thus are unable to get to their assets even if they want to. 

https://twitter.com/Josh_Rager/status/1200973254132932608

A perfect example of the latter category will be the case of QuadrigaCX, a Canadian cryptocurrency exchange whose founder and chief executive, Gerald Cotten, died in December 2018 while being the only person who had access to the exchanges cold wallets. 

Thanks to his death, about $140 million in cryptocurrencies has remained locked in those wallets to this day. A significant percentage of these assets will most likely be Bitcoin. It’s possible to say whether those Bitcoins would have been spent if they were in possession of their rightful owners, but the existence of occurrences such as these dilute the accuracy of Rhythm’s assumption. 

Institutions to the Rescue? 

However, the fact remains that the Bitcoin market is comprised of a predominant amount of hodlers. Amongst their things, this fact surely validates the view that the market is currently being upheld by institutional investors. 

More hodlers means that there will be less trading activities on the Bitcoin network. As activities reduce (since people hold the asset and hope for a return to the highs of 2017), the asset has struggled to see its price increase. However, institutions and their desire for high-volume trading have been able to keep the Bitcoin market afloat nonetheless. 

It’s no secret that institutional interest in cryptocurrencies is increasing. Companies such as Grayscale Investments and Bakkt have shown us that. Now, it would seem that they have gone on from being a welcome addition to the crypto market to being integral parts that everyday speculators rely on to keep their holdings valuable.