Bitcoin inactive supply nears record as over 60% of BTC stays unspent for at least 1 year

cointelegraph.com:

Bitcoin (BTC) may be struggling at $40,000 but fresh data is reinforcing the fact that hardly anyone is interested in selling.

Data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode shows that despite price volatility, over 60% of the BTC supply has not left its wallet in a year or more.

Stubborn hodling by long-term investors is a characteristic that differentiates the current Bitcoin market climate from most other downtrends.

With spot price action passing 50% losses versus November's all-time highs last month, expectations were for cold feet to kick in — but among seasoned hodlers, the sell-off never came.

In fact, the opposite has been true for an extended period — long-term investors are adding to their positions or staying put on their BTC exposure.

According to Glassnode's HODL Waves indicator, as of Feb. 18, 60.61% of the BTC supply has not been used in a transaction for a year or more.

The figure is significant — only twice before in Bitcoin's history has the one-year-or-more value reached that level. 

As noted by entrepreneur and investor Alistair Milne, both occasions followed a downtrend and preceded a major bounceback in Bitcoin price action.

There have only been two occasions where 1yr+ HODL'ing of #Bitcoin has been higher (currently 61%).Early 2016, price $380-450 rangeMid-2020, price ~$9000Both times were during a prolonged consolidation before a huge bull move

As such, the odds are on for an altogether different trend to form for Bitcoin in the mid-term, this potentially defying the broadly gloomy narrative over flagging macro support, rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions.

"Long term HODL'ers patiently HODL'ing because they know what's likely coming soon," Philip Swift, analyst at trading suite Decentrader, added