u.today
24 April 2024 19:00, UTC
According to a recent report by Fortune, which cites data from prominent blockchain sleuth Chainalysis, roughly 1.8 million ($121 billion) of Bitcoin is stored in wallets that have been inactive for more than a decade.
Dormant coins account for 8.5% of Bitcoin's 19.7 million circulating supply.
It is unclear what percentage of cryptocurrencies is lost forever, but the report suggests that the total number of such coins should stabilize around 1.5 million.
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Earlier this month, for instance, a Satoshi-era whale woke up after an entire decade of inactivity with $115 million.
When wallets become active again after a long period of time, some assume that they might want to take profits after a price rally.
However, according to the report, there is no direct correlation between the activation of long-dormant wallets and substantial price moves.
Interestingly enough, Chainalysis has noted that old wallets tend to be activated at a rather predictable pace. The vast majority of such wallets do not usually make headlines due to their small size. Ninety-nine percent of all wallets that are considered to be lost contain less than 50 BTC ($3.2 million at current prices).
According to data provided by Glassnode, more than 68% of Bitcoin's total circulating supply has been inactive for more than a year.
The fact that less supply is available on the market is a potentially bullish development if one takes into account growing demand following the approval of a slew of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January.
The largest cryptocurrency is currently trading at $64,810 on major spot exchanges.
