Data confirms that exchange-held bitcoin (BTC) has fallen to the BTC price all-time high of 2017.
According to the latest figures from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, less than 12% of BTC supply is currently in exchange wallets.
Analyst: BTC price ‘on the verge of true price discovery’
Bitcoin returned to exchanges during the BTC price surge of 2023, with BTC/USD more than doubling from cycle lows.
However, since late April there has been a return to the long-term trend of coins exiting exchanges, and a milestone was reached this month.
As of July 10th, 11.59% of the available BTC supply is currently in popular exchange wallets called Glassnode. The number hasn’t been this low since mid-December 2017 – when Bitcoin touched its previous all-time high of $20,000.
Bitcoin balance percentage chart on exchanges. Source: Glassnode
“Only 11.5% of bitcoin supply remains on exchanges, the lowest in over 5 years,” commented William Clemente, co-founder of crypto analytics firm Reflexivity Research.
In terms of BTC, exchange holdings are back to where they were in March 2018, with known wallets holding a total of 2.252 million BTC as of July 10th.
Bitcoin balance on stock market chart. Source: Glassnode
Using Coinbase as an example, Joe Burnett, chief analyst at mining firm Blockware, noted that BTC balances have more than halved since the March 2020 cross-market crash.
“Exchanges are being drained,” he concluded in a recent Twitter comment, adding that he sees Bitcoin as “on the verge of true price discovery.”
Coinbase BTC balance chart. Source: Joe Burnett/Twitter
Bitcoin whales on the rise
As Cointelegraph reported, expectations of BTC price pressure due to falling supply and rising buyer demand have risen, in tandem with expectations that the United States may soon approve a Bitcoin spot price exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Related: Bitcoin supply shock will push BTC price to $120,000 – Standard Chartered
Some argue that other advances, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), should have a similar effect over time.
Meanwhile, exchange balances continue to fall as the number of bitcoin whale companies — those with the largest wallet balances outside of exchanges — sees a spike.
Around 40 new whales have surfaced since late April, and on July 7 their numbers hit the highest level since the FTX crisis in November last year.
Bitcoin Count of Entities with Balance Above 1,000 BTC Chart. Source: Glassnode
A curious exception to the FX outflow trend is mining pool Poolin, which continues to send large tranches of BTC to Binance.
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