Bitcoin transactions stay low despite price rally: Data

Bitcoin on-chain activity dropped this low after May 2021’s crypto market crash and hasn’t risen above this level since.

Despite Bitcoin (BTC) price growing 45% over the past 30 days, cryptocurrency investors are not moving their holdings, according to new data.

Blockchain analytics provider Glassnode released its new “The Week On Chain” report on Monday, noting that Bitcoin has continued rallying to new multi-month highs despite divergence in on-chain activity during the week ending on Aug. 23.

The report discovered that Bitcoin on-chain activity like the amount of entity-adjusted transactions has still not responded to the ongoing bullish action, remaining at historically low levels of between 175,000 and 200,000 daily transactions. Bitcoin on-chain activity dropped this low after May 2021’s crypto market crash and hasn’t risen above this level since.

The number of Bitcoin transactions was this low only a few times in the past five years, including the 2016 to 2017 bull run in which Bitcoin hit $20,000 for the first time. The same level was also recorded during the 2018 to 2019 bear market as the Bitcoin price plummeted 85% from the then all-time high.

Related: Bitcoin price tags $50K for first time since May

Despite a significant discrepancy between rising prices and low on-chain activity, the overall supply dynamics have remained quite bullish, Glassnode reported. This week, the Bitcoin supply held by long-term holders has reached an all-time high of 12.69 million BTC, surpassing the previous record posted in October 2020. 

In early August, Glassnode reported that Bitcoin’s 50% downside correction in May might not be as alarming as it was in 2018 due to strong “hodling behavior.”