Bitcoin: 22% of coins in the hands of speculators

According to Chainalysis's recently updated annual study, "long-term investors sold about $24 billion of Bitcoin to new speculators between December 2017 and April 2018, with half of the sales occurring in the month of December alone. This unprecedented injection of liquidity is responsible for the price decline during that period." Obviously, when holders sell a financial product, its price falls, and it can fall quite significantly.

The latest data, however, indicates that “Bitcoin investors and speculators held their positions throughout the summer.” The emerging cryptocurrency economy is often considered incomprehensible and unanalyzable. This is mainly due to the mathematical properties of cryptocurrencies. Chainalysis believes that by shedding light on some of the details of what is happening in the market, they can contribute to its growth, so they combined existing data on on-chain activity and information on monetary resources. 

For emerging financial systems such as the crypto economy, understanding fundamental economic signals is a major factor that allows participants to make more informed decisions. People are unlikely to stay in a market whose behavior seems completely random and based on hype. If we can identify and study clear and logical signals, more and more people will be interested in investing. That's why this data is important.

The company has collected so much data that its employees can easily determine which address belongs to an investor, which speculator, and even the number of coins lost in a given account. And while the previous study found that the majority of long-term investors sold $30 billion worth of Bitcoin, the updated study "found market stability across each monetary aggregate." All monetary aggregates were extremely stable during the summer. Additionally, the amount of Bitcoin (22% of the total supply) held by speculators remained unchanged from May to August. Likewise, the amount of Bitcoin used as an investment remained below 30% of the total supply during the summer.

The cryptocurrency market appears to be continuing to evolve. The researchers highlighted the fact that “the market has recalibrated as new participants with new beliefs and expectations entered the market, not just Bitcoin holders as was the case before 2017.” The Chainalysis report ends with this: "Thus, the first stage of adoption - people receiving cryptocurrency - has been completed. We now look forward to seeing what the second stage of adoption looks like."

According to https://news.bitcoin.com/