Bitcoin supply held by retail investors reaches all-time high

• The Bitcoin market and cryptocurrency industry has been on the receiving end in 2022 following the Terra Luna and FTX fallout.

• While the global cryptocurrency market cap today is $846 Billion, Bitcoin’s dominance stands at approximately 38.4 percent.

Bitcoin supply held by retail traders has surged to 17 percent, approximately 3.57 million, in 2022 according to on-chain research firm Glassnode. The figure indicates a rising number of individual users worldwide despite the underlying BTC value trading 75 percent below the ATH. According to our latest crypto price oracles, Bitcoin price is exchanging at about $16,874 on Wednesday.

Nonetheless, Will Clemente, co-founder of ReflexivityRes, thinks the Bitcoin market is trending in the right direction. 

The percentage of Bitcoin supply held by retail has soared to 17% this year.

Not perfect yet, but solid for a 12-year-old asset and definitely trending in the right direction.

Bitcoin’s supply disperses over time, while Fiat’s holder base concentrates to whales over time. pic.twitter.com/ipDbWVmcEl

— Will Clemente (@WClementeIII) December 20, 2022

As such, Clemente suggests the 12-year-old asset is well poised to climb higher in the next decade with more players onboard. Moreover, Bitcoin is used as legal tender in two countries, El Salvador and the Central African Republic, with millions of people.

According to Glassnode, Bitcoin addresses holding less than 10 BTC are regarded as retail traders. With retail traders adopting Bitcoin rising exponentially over the years, the longevity of the crypto market is getting solidified. Thus indicating bullish news not only for the Bitcoin market but also for the entire cryptocurrency industry.

Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Market Outlook

The Bitcoin market and cryptocurrency industry has been on the receiving end in 2022 following the Terra Luna and FTX fallout. Moreover, over $60 billion have forcefully been liquidated during these two events, thus attracting regulators’ attention worldwide. Nonetheless, as the fiat inflation keeps rising with stagnant wages, market strategists anticipate more crypto adoption in search of speculative assets.

Notably, most cryptocurrency investors are speculative holders at one specific time. Mind you, Bitcoin has registered gains of approximately 24766.9 percent in the past 9 years, outperforming most traditional assets like gold and silver.

While the global cryptocurrency market cap today is $846 Billion, Bitcoin’s dominance stands at approximately 38.4 percent. Ethereum is the closest to Bitcoin in market dominance with approximately 17.3 percent, despite being the largest smart contract ecosystem.

With this in mind, it is evident that Bitcoin has a high potential of dominating the DeFi world with over 50 million holders. According to data by bitinfocharts.com, Bitcoin addresses with coins between 1,000 and 10,000 are about 1932. 

Notably, one of Binance’s cold wallets – mostly composed of users’ funds – has approximately 250k BTC. Additionally, the exchange has another address with approximately 127k BTC. 

With Binance being the world’s largest exchange by registered users and daily traded volume, analysts remain bullish on the entire cryptocurrency.

Nonetheless, the ongoing bear market threatens to push Bitcoin price lower should the value fall under $15,400. Such a scenario could, however, be invalidated should Bitcoin price regain $18,600 as support in the near future.