Three-quarters of BTC addresses still in profit despite market decline: Glassnode

Published at: April 12, 2022

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has been on the decline again recently, but new insights from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode show that up to 75% of Bitcoin addresses are in profit.

In its Week-On Chain report published on Monday, April 11, Glassnode analyzed the number of Bitcoin wallets that are in profit and found that around 70% to 75% of addresses are seeing an unrealized profit, much higher than the 45% to 50% of addresses during the 2018 bear market.

Commenting on the findings, the Glassnode analysts added that the current bear market is nowhere near as bad as previous ones:

“The current bear market is not as severe as the worst phases of all prior cycles, with just 25% to 30% of the market being at an unrealized loss. It remains to be seen if further sell-side pressure will drive the market lower, and thus pull more of the market into an unrealized loss like prior cycles.”

The report further revealed that long-term holders of Bitcoin, those who have held for over 155 days, were the least likely to be at a loss. More than 67.5% of long-term holders are at an unrealized profit, whereas short-term holders, those who have held for less than 155 days, have seen only 7.88% make any gains.

Currently, the Bitcoin price is below $40,000 and dipped close to $39,000 in the last 24 hours, which has placed the asset back into bear market territory. The direction in which Bitcoin will head has some speculating a drop to $30,000, whilst other data shows traders attempting to push the price to $50,000.

The report also detailed that 58% of the volume on the Bitcoin network is in what it terms “profit dominance”, a metric that hasn’t been strongly observed since December 2021.

Glassnode added that bear markets typically see long periods of transaction volume that make a loss, and this reversal to profit dominance could be a sign that sentiment is shifting, with demand for Bitcoin able to buy the sell-side.

However, Glassnode writes, “given prices continue to struggle, it does suggest that the demand side remains somewhat lackluster and that investors are taking profits into whatever market strength can be found.”

The analysts added that the market has seen daily realized profits of around 13,300 BTC since mid-February whilst daily realized losses declined from around 20,000 BTC in January, to around 8,300 BTC last week.

Whilst a large proportion of addresses and transactions see a profit, overall the amount of users on the Bitcoin network, and subsequently, the amount of transactions, is continuing to “languish” according to the analysts.

Transactions on the network are at around 225,000 daily transactions, a number similar to the 2018 to 2019 bear market. Transactions have climbed from mid-2021 but the analysts noted that “it is a far cry from the hype cycle observed during bull markets.”