HODLing Steady: Bitcoin Long-Term Holder Supply Stays Near ATH

9 months ago 67

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On-chain data shows that Bitcoin long-term holders haven’t sold much during the recent downtrend, as their supply is still near an all-time high (ATH).

Various Bitcoin Long-Term Holder Groups Have Supplies Still Near ATH

According to the latest weekly report from Glassnode, most of the long-term holders have continued to HODL strong recently. The “long-term holders” (LTHs) refer to the Bitcoin investors who have kept their coins dormant since at least 155 days ago.

The LTHs comprise one of the two main divisions of the BTC market based on holding time, with the other cohort being known as the “short-term holders” (STHs).

Statistically, the longer an investor holds onto their coins, the less likely they become to sell at any point. As such, the LTHs have always been the more resolute investor groups of the two.

One way to track the behavior of these HODLers is through the combined amount of supply they are carrying in their wallets right now. In the report, Glassnode hasn’t discussed the entire LTH cohort but rather a few segments, starting from the investors’ holdings since 1+ years ago.

The chart below shows the supply for these LTH supply bands over the last few years:

Bitcoin Long-Term Holder Supply

The supply seems to have gone down across the board in recent days | Source: Glassnode's The Week Onchain - Week 5, 2024

“Amidst strong rallies, sell-the-news events, and dynamic markets, the vast majority of HODLers appear to be calmly riding the market waves,” says the report. “This set of Supply Last Active metrics measure the proportion of the circulating supply held for multi-year time horizons.”

Something to note is that these supply metrics have a delay attached to them when buying. A rise in the 1 year+ ago band, for example, doesn’t mean that these LTHs are buying right now. Instead, it means the investors bought a year ago, and their coins have matured into this band.

Unlike buying, though, selling has no such delay associated, as the age of the coins would instantly reset back to zero once moved on the blockchain, thus taking them out of the cohort.

From the chart, it’s apparent that all these Bitcoin LTH supply bands, except for the one from 3+ years ago, have registered some decrease recently, implying that some selling has occurred from even these diamond hands during the latest struggle for the asset.

According to Glassnode, some, but not all, of this old coin volume can be traced back to the outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which have recently been a topic of much discussion among BTC traders.

“However, in absolute magnitude, the vast majority of the BTC holder base remains steadfast, with the percentage of held supply across multiple age bands residing just below ATHs,” explains the analytics firm.