As Bitcoin Price Rises, More Investors Are Buying In

As the price of Bitcoin goes up, so do the number of Bitcoin HODLersHODLers—at least that’s the trend observed by crypto analytics site Glassnode over the last couple days. 

The number of BitcoinBitcoin addresses holding more than 0.1 coins, (currently about $1,188) has hit an all-time high, and the number of addresses holding more than 100 coins (currently $1,188 million) has reached a six-month high, according to Glassnode. Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin teases said HODLers at just below $12,000 per coin.

First: as of yesterday, October 19, there were 16,159 Bitcoin addresses holding more than 100 Bitcoin, Glassnode data shows. This just pipped the six-month high set on June 8, of 16,158. A couple other days observed a pushing of the envelope, too.

Second, and also as of yesterday: more addresses held at least 0.1 Bitcoin than ever before. Glassnode’s data showed that 3,160,057 addresses held at least 0.1 Bitcoin, beating out the previous all time high of 3,159,231...which Glassnode also observed yesterday. 

So, what does this tell us? Well, it suggests that Bitcoin’s bumper week brought a couple of newbies along for the ride. The Bitcoin market has performed well this month, managing to excavate itself from the swamp of about $10,500 it’s been stuck in for the past month. 

Bitcoin’s good fortune started on around October 7, when its price started to rise from $10,650, sailing upward like a balloon to its current price of $11,844. Its highest price in the past 24 hours, according to data from metrics site CoinMarketCap, is $11,999,92.

Pedro Febrero, an analyst at Quantum Economics, told Decrypt that this is "a very bullish piece of news." Said Febrero: "The more buyers there are, the greater the chances that bitcoin prices will rise."

However, Febrero warned against extrapolating a correlation between Bitcoin's price and the rise of the number of addresses that hold sizable chunks of Bitcoin. "What I personally think will happen in the medium to long-term is that bitcoin will become increasingly redistributed between low-value addresses, as its price rises versus fiat currencies," he said.