Bitcoin Holders Haven't Moved Over 11 Million BTC Since 2018

Since last year, a total of 11.58 million Bitcoin (BTC) remained dormant in the wallets of "hodlers" despite the popular crypto kissing a $13,000 price at one point.

Analyst Rhythm tweeted this observation, "11,580,00 bitcoin have not moved in over a year. Even with a 85% increase in price during that time, those millions of bitcoin were not sold or traded. Hodlers of last resort are insane."

With the total number of BTCs in circulation -- around 18 million -- the quiescent stockpile makes up more than 60 percent of the current supply, suggesting that most of the hodlers manifest an analogous outlook for Bitcoin or a similar timeframe for when to sell.

What Bitcoin looked like last year

Bitcoin was evidently on a bear market in 2018. From a closing price of almost $13,500 at the start of the year, bears have taken the market to a steady downward slope in the 12 months that followed. On the same day last year, Bitcoin closed at about $4,103, and the next day traded lower at $3,833.

Holding on to halving

Those who could have doubled their money with last year's December prices but chose not to have expressed some of their reasons for not moving the BTCs in their wallets. One of the reasons was the scheduled Bitcoin halving or the event where the BTC rewards (which is also the new supply) to miners will be reduced to half.

"I'm happy to report that my Bitcoins won't be moving for at least 3 halvings and probably much longer. #StackSats #InItForTheLongRun #Bitcoin #BuyTheDip #HODL," Twitter user Bittoshi said in response to Rhythm's tweet.

Another twitter user, whalecheetah, chimed in, "I'm one of them. The whole thing is so simple. You have a fixed Supply. The more people who don't move their Bitcoin the greater the Squeeze becomes. My entire goal is accumulating more. Period. Full stop."

Watching out for whales

Last month, analysts warned that some of those who own large quantities of BTC could have devastating effects on the rest of the market participants should they decide to sell.

Twitter-based transaction monitor @whale_alert even cited one dormant account that holds 80,000 BTC ($588 million) and could move the market if that hodler converted all those Bitcoins to fiat.