While bitcoin’s price is 38% below its high of $69,000 three months ago, the amount of bitcoin on exchanges is at its lowest since April 2021. Late July last year , there were 2.59 million bitcoins held by crypto trading platforms, and today there are only 2.36 million held by exchanges, which means there is 8.8% of fewer bitcoins on exchanges than six months ago.
Bitcoin exchange reserves drop 8% from bitcoin held on exchanges 6 months ago
According to current statistics, there are 2.363 million bitcoins, or $100 billion, of the top crypto asset held on exchanges. The current value of bitcoin (BTC) held by centralized exchanges is equivalent to 12.36% of the $809 billion global market capitalization of BTC.
Although 2.363 million is a large fraction, it is 8.88% less than the number of bitcoins held on exchanges on July 25, 2021. Too many crypto market participants and the fact that there are fewer BTC on the exchanges means less selling pressure in the future.
The metrics indicate that the last time bitcoin exchange reserves were this low was ten months ago, in April 2021. Combined statistics from Bituniverse, Peckshield, Etherscan and Chain.info show that the Coinbase exchange holds the most bitcoins (BTC) today with 853,530 BTC held in reserves.
The value of Coinbase’s BTC holdings is equivalent to 35% of the current $100 billion of BTC held on the exchange. Binance is the second-largest bitcoin holder, by trade, with 339,870 BTC worth $14.5 billion using current bitcoin exchange rates.
Ethereum Exchange Reserves Drop, Miners Sell Holdings
Meanwhile, the same can be said for the number of Ethereum (ETH) held on centralized exchanges. Data from cryptoquant.com shows that there are 17 million ether held on exchanges today, but that amount has dropped significantly since May 2021. In May last year, crypto exchanges held 21.9 million ethereum.
This means that approximately 22.37% of the ETH held on the exchange left the market environment for alternatives. On the other hand, much of the ETH that has left centralized exchanges since last May could have been transferred to decentralized exchanges (dex).
Currently, the most active crypto exchange by ether trading volume, Binance, holds 3.59 million ETH in reserves. While less BTC and ETH on exchanges could lead to lower selling pressure, metrics show that BTC miners are selling bitcoin.
According to data from Glassnode, miner holdings turned negative on February 5, 2022, for the first time in two months. At the time of writing, statistics from cryptoquant.com indicate that there are approximately 1.86 million BTC held by mining entities.
What do you think of the number of bitcoins held on crypto exchanges? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.
Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, cryptoquant.com,
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