Bitcoin Retail Buying Spikes, Adoption Accelerating?

On-chain data shows that Bitcoin retail investors have been aggressively buying the asset recently, a sign that adoption may accelerate.

Bitcoin Shrimps Have Been Aggressively Accumulating Recently

According to data from the on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, only 116 days in the entire history of the cryptocurrency have seen stronger accumulation from retail traders.

The relevant indicator here is the “net position change,” which measures the net amount of Bitcoin entering or exiting the wallets of a specific group or cohort in the market per month.

When the value of this metric is positive, it means a net number of coins are entering the wallets of the group in question. This trend can be a sign that the cohort is accumulating right now.

On the other hand, negative values of the indicator suggest these investors are currently transferring coins out of their wallets. Such a trend implies the group is selling at the moment.

Now, in the context of the current discussion, the cohort of interest is the shrimp group, which contains entities that hold less than 1 BTC in their wallet balances.

Here is a chart that shows the trend in the total Bitcoin supply held by the shrimps, as well as the cohort’s net position change, over the last few years:

The values of the metrics seem to have risen in recent days | Source: Glassnode on Twitter

As shown in the above graph, the total amount of Bitcoin held by the shrimps has been sharply going up for a while now and has hit a value of around 1.29 million BTC. This means that these investors have constantly been buying more.

The uptrend has been especially rapid recently, as the shrimp net position change shows a large spike. At the current value of the indicator, coins are moving into the supply of shrimps at a rate of about 37,000 BTC per month.

The chart also shows the curve for the number of trading days that have seen spikes in the shrimp net position change higher than the current one.

It looks like only 116 trading days in the entire history of the asset have seen the indicator register a higher value. This implies that shrimps have been accumulating at a historically aggressive pace recently.

As members of the shrimp cohort hold such a small amount of Bitcoin, these investors will likely be retail traders. This means that growth in the supply of shrimps can provide a hint about the activity of the retail holders.

Since the shrimp cohort has rapidly grown recently, it seems reasonable to assume that the cryptocurrency has been seeing a lot of adoption recently. Fresh adoption is generally constructive for the coin, as new network users can provide a more sustainable base for long-term price moves.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $28,200, up 5% in the last week.

Looks like BTC has been moving sideways recently | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

Featured image from Kanchanara on Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, Glassnode.com