Retail Accumulation? Number of Bitcoin Addresses With One or More Coins Sees Solid Rise

A key on-chain metric has witnessed growth over the past 12 months, possibly indicating steady accumulation of bitcoins by retail traders. 

As of Jan. 14, there were 784,000 addresses holding one or more bitcoins, up nearly 11 percent from 707,000 seen a year ago, according to blockchain intelligence firm Glassnode. The number has more than doubled since early 2015. 

“The steady rise is the result of accumulation by retail buyers,” according to Connor Abendschein, crypto research analyst at Digital Assets Data in Denver.

Address growth can also come from exchanges and big players, known as “whales,” though such addresses usually hold large balances and often rank at the top of bitcoin’s “rich list,” a table of the addresses holding the most bitcoins.

For instance, three of the top five addresses on the rich list, published by bitinfocharts.com, belong to prominent exchanges Huobi, Bitfinex…