Right now, the spotlight is on a rather rare event: the movement of around 80 000 BTC worth approximately $8.6 billion that had been dormant for 14 years.
These coins were reportedly mined in 2011 during the so-called Satoshi era when Bitcoin was still trading below $1.
Monitoring miner activity is crucial as they can represent significant selling pressure not only due to the massive unrealized gains they hold but also because some of them control extremely large BTC reserves.--
To visualize this, the UTXO Age Bands metric helps break down Bitcoin supply by holding duration, showing how much BTC each cohort controls.
- Unsurprisingly, the 10+ year band still holds the largest share of the total supply with 17%.
- The 3 to 5 year band used to follow closely (14,3%) but has recently been overtaken by the 6 to 12 month band (15,8%), which has seen a sharp rise over the past 3 months.
This shift represents the transition from STH to Long LTH and suggests that recent buyers are still holding despite market conditions.
- The 7 to 10 year band is also among the largest in terms of supply held (8,3%), a reminder that LTHs, including some of the oldest miners, still control a substantial portion of the supply.
This is why it is critical to stay alert when ancient BTCs suddenly move as they can carry macro-level implications.
Written by Darkfost
