The bitcoin network hit a new all-time high yesterday when looking at the number of bitcoin addresses on-chain that hold at least 0.01 bitcoin balance. This new all-time high came in at 9,245,770 bitcoin addresses that meet the criteria.
So why exactly is this a big deal?
Bitcoin price has been falling from approximately $69,000 to under $58,000 over the last week or so. This drop in price would normally signal a drop in transaction volume, active addresses, and various other metrics. But we have seen persistent demand from users of the bitcoin network to accumulate bitcoin in small or large quantities, regardless of price.
Many people assign these persistent, periodic buys to one of two factors â (a) new users coming on-chain or (b) continued dollar-cost averaging by small investors. Remember, we arenât talking about very large dollar amounts here. The US dollar equivalent of 0.01 bitcoin currently sits at approximately $570. It doesnât take many $20 or $50 daily, weekly, or monthly purchases to dollar-cost average into a 0.01 bitcoin balance.
Another important aspect of this new all-time high metric is that we are purely talking about on-chain bitcoin addresses, which does not include exchange accounts where the majority of bitcoin and cryptocurrency investors will go to buy, sell, or hold their assets. When you account for this detail, the 9 million number that may have previously seemed small compared to the global population, now seems a little bit more impressive.
But is there more to the story than simply the all-time high in bitcoin addresses with more than 0.01 bitcoin balance? Absolutely.
Take a look at the total transaction fees per day that people are paying to miners. This is the lowest it has been since around March or April of 2018.
The total can be misleading though, so letâs take a look at the mean of all transaction fees being paid to miners. That is also at a multi-year low.
Hope each of you has a great day.
Iâll talk to you tomorrow.