The number of large holders of bitcoin returned to the levels of 2016

The number of bitcoin whales or large investors who can influence the market by their actions has increased to a four-year high along with the recent rise in the rate, according to data from the Glassnode service.

On Sunday, the number of address clusters controlled by a single owner and containing at least 1,000 BTC reached 1,939, the highest level since September 2016. During the week, the indicator increased by 2.2%, while the price of bitcoin – by 14%. Since the beginning of the year, the growth of the "whale population" is 13%.

According to analyst Willy Woo, these data indicate that large investors are increasingly considering bitcoin as a hedge against the inflationary policies of Central banks. Recently, several public companies have announced the placement of part of their assets in bitcoin.

According to BitInfoCharts, bitcoin addresses containing 1,000 BTC or more now account for 5.3 million BTC, or 42.62% of all existing coins. Of these, it is estimated that over 1 million BTC are in the wallets of bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto, who never moved them.

In addition, Glassnode data allows you to track patterns of "hodling" or the share of bitcoins that have not been used in transactions for a long time. So, according to the service, 62% of bitcoins remain in the wallets of their owners without movement for more than a year, and almost a third of existing coins have not changed addresses for three years.