The number of bitcoin held on exchanges has continued to drop in recent times as the metric suggests crypto advocates are pulling funds off of trading platforms for long-term holding. At the time of writing, 2.32 million bitcoin worth over $90 billion is held on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges.
Since this time last year, large sums of Bitcoin continue to be withdrawn from centralized exchanges
Bitcoin is being pulled from exchanges in greater numbers these days, as the metric shows the amount – 2.32 million bitcoins (BTC) held today – hasn’t been this low in over three years. In fact, three years ago in March, the number of BTC stored on various trading platforms was larger, with around 2.73 million bitcoins held. Additionally, in the aftermath of the infamous “Black Thursday” of March 11, 2020, exchanges held just over three million BTC, according to metrics from cryptoquant.com.
During the last few weeks, crypto asset prices have been lower and exchange balance metrics really started to slide in August 2021. Today, Coinbase is the largest balance holder in terms of bitcoin with 853,530 BTC according to Bituniverse stats. Bituniverse leverages data from peckshield.com, chain.info, and etherscan.io. The Transparent Balance Rank tool also measures ethereum (ETH) and tether (USDT) balances.
Below Coinbase’s balance, Binance holds $18.94 billion in crypto assets. Binance has over 340,000 BTC by current metrics and 3.59 million ETH as well. Additionally, Binance holds 1.24 billion tethers of stablecoins. Beneath the $44.5 billion held by Coinbase and the reserves held by Binance are Huobi Global’s vaults with $16.12 billion in crypto reserves. Huobi Wallets says the exchange holds over 160,000 BTC and 2.13 million Ethereum.
Crypto funds leaving exchanges is often seen in the crypto space as a good sign for two reasons. For one, the trend suggests that owners are not willing to sell their bitcoin at this time. This means there are fewer funds on the market for whales to dump and it also makes liquidity dry up. Furthermore, in the world of cryptocurrency assets, the golden rule is to hold your own keys and the trend could also suggest users are taking that advice more seriously.
