Bitcoin Direct Ownership Drops Amid ETF Introduction in USA
Significant decline in direct Bitcoin owners – Effect of ETFs?
The number of direct Bitcoin owners has seen a significant decline in recent weeks. This could be due to the influence of the recently introduced Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in the USA.
Decrease in Bitcoin Wallets
According to on-chain analysis company Santiment, the total number of Bitcoin wallets with a non-zero balance has drastically decreased in the last two weeks. In fact, about 469,000 wallets held no more coins compared to January 21.
Possible reasons for the decline
Santiment attributes the decline to Bitcoin’s underperforming performance on the price charts and decreased interest in direct ownership of the asset. Indeed, the king coin has been wavering in a tight trading range of $42.7K-$43.5K for the past four weeks. The price stagnation frustrated traders who had entered the market expecting quick returns after the ETF approvals. As a result, many from this impatient group disposed of their Bitcoins and left the market.
Whale entities show support
In stark contrast to the impatient retailers, the wealthy owners continued to show confidence in Bitcoin’s long-term prospects. According to a study of Glassnode data by AMBCrypto, the unique units holding at least 1,000 coins have increased by more than 6% since the ETF approvals. The confidence shown by the whale investors could ultimately drive retail ownership in the near future.
Positive overall sentiment remains
Shivam Thakral, CEO of Indian cryptocurrency exchange BuyUcoin, agreed with this and emphasized the positive institutional sentiments around Bitcoin leading to the halving. He noted, “The Bitcoin Spot ETF mania has not subsided, as BlackRock and Fidelity now jointly own 138,489 BTC, which is approximately $5.9 billion in Bitcoin. All these movements only reflect positive institutional sentiments around Bitcoin ahead of the halving.”
Sources: Santiment, AMBCrypto, Glassnode, BuyUcoin
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