The number of addresses holding more than 1,000 Bitcoins continues to increase. What does this mean?

Bitcoin’s rising valuation is now matching the size of market activity, multiple indicators are indicating change, and there is a sense of urgency in the digital asset industry. While every part of the Bitcoin landscape (or data) seems positive right now, assessing the impact that may be felt long after the bull run becomes a little tricky.

A new survey from Santiment highlights a growing metric whose future implications are unclear.

According to the analytics platform, the number of Bitcoin holders with 1,000 or more BTC continues to rise even as the price surpasses its all-time high. Meanwhile, the number of addresses with less than 1,000 Bitcoins has declined as small HODLers are speculated to be cashing in profits at the current price of the cryptocurrency, rather than higher expectations and price levels.

At first glance, the massive accumulation in wallets with more than 1,000 BTC may seem harmless, but its concentration may be greater than we think.

One of the main differences between the current bull run and that of 2017 is the direct involvement of major financial institutions , which have accumulated Bitcoin with great vigor and interest, and Microstrategy’s recent interest may have paved the way for other entrants.

Now, according to the attached chart, on December 6, almost no entities held 4.20% of the BTC supply, which totaled just over 881,953 BTC. However, this number has likely increased since then, and may have climbed closer to 5-6% as of press time.

The striking observation here is that each organization has multiple addresses with more than 1,000 BTC, as shown in the above figure, which leads to a huge degree of control of Bitcoin in the hands of a few people, which over the years, it may lead to uneven distribution.

So, should we be worried about this situation?

A fundamental characteristic of Bitcoin is that its supply can be calculated over the course of its history and, unlike fiat currencies, its supply is capped at a finite amount. In this respect, Bitcoin has the most stable supply rate of all crypto assets.

This metric compares the average income of the richest 20% of people in society to the poorest 20%. Rather than income, the SER data focuses on the supply held by different accounts in a network. It compares the poorest accounts (all accounts with balances less than 0.00001% of the supply) and the richest accounts (balances of all top 1% addresses).

Another factor that may prevent people from accumulating large amounts of Bitcoin in the future is the price appreciation of BTC. After a few years, it will not be possible to easily hoard large amounts of Bitcoin because further scarcity will only increase its long-term value.

The original text comes from ambcrypto and was translated by Blockchain Knight. The English copyright belongs to the original author. Please contact the translator for Chinese reprint.