The number of individual digital wallets that hold at least one bitcoin has reached the milestone number of one million this week. Data released from the on-chain analytics tool, Glassnode shows that wallets holding bitcoin have risen 20% since February 2022, crossing the one million mark.
The data indicates that trust in the cryptocurrency remains intact even as the broader markets experience turbulence. The data shows an increase of almost 80,000 holders following the FTX crash in November 2022 where the price of bitcoin suffered a significant decrease. This is also consistent with a move away from holding bitcoin through wallets held by centralised exchanges.
The bitcoin holding uptick is noteworthy, particularly because of recent setbacks in consumer trust resulting from market disturbance following the SVB collapse. Glassnode's co-founder took to Twitter to express a simple sentiment when it comes to purchasing bitcoin:
Buy when there is Blood in the streets.
Despite the grim nature of this tweet, 'Negentropic' is alluding to the fact that a significant proportion of bitcoin uptake is seen during sustained bear markets or broader institutional disruption.
There are several reasons for this, one being that when a major bank collapse happens such as with SVB, investors look to bitcoin to protect their capital as it is a trustless decentralised asset. Another theory is that investors are loading up on bitcoin while the price is (relatively) low and seeking to hold until the market recovers in the future.
In any case, the latest data indicates that so-called bitcoin "hodlers'"trust in bitcoin has not waivered, even in the face of undeniable market disruption and a downturn in prices.