The number of bitcoins held on exchanges hits a 4-year low

After the collapse of FTX, the wave of fear that gripped investors who kept their funds on the exchange continues to grip more and more cryptocurrency enthusiasts. At the same time, it is worth noting that they increase the level of security by sending cryptocurrency to their hardware wallets.

Recently, a surprisingly small number of bitcoins have been registered, compared to previous years. All cryptocurrency exchanges currently hold only 1,200,000 BTC, while the remaining 18,200,000 circulate outside the exchanges. Large institutions prefer to keep their funds outside of cryptocurrency platforms and recent events indicate that they made the right choice.

According to Santiment experts, the flagship cryptocurrency has now reached the maximum level of storage of a digital asset outside the sites. A completely opposite picture was observed at the beginning of 2020, when the peak of the popularity of cryptocurrency platforms was recorded and the percentage of BTC coins stored on them was almost 2 times higher than today's figure.

In addition, it is worth noting that the number of Bitcoins moved in December 2022 was a record for the last 10 years, as also reported by Santiment.

This year, the entire cryptocurrency industry is experiencing hard times. In addition to the fact that many projects went bankrupt and left investors without investments, the cost of the main cryptocurrency dropped from $47,000 to $16,800 and has been trading in this range for the last month and a half.

Representatives of the Hong Kong exchange see such behavior of their clients as positive signals for the further growth of bitcoin, linking this to the accumulation phase:

The mass withdrawal of BTC from exchanges is an optimistic sign, as investors often deposit their assets and store them on exchanges with the intention of selling. The withdrawal of assets from exchanges, in contrast, often indicates a desire to hold them for a long period of time.