Bitcoin Fans Were Stockpiling Anew as Rout Hit, Chainalysis Says

(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin was showing signs of renewed popularity just before it suffered its worst monthly price drop of the year in November, according to data released Wednesday by researcher Chainalysis. It found Bitcoin’s 30-day moving average of flows to personal wallets was on the rise, surpassing $400 million by Nov. 1 from less than $300 million in June.

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• The increase was a partial rebound after the flows slowed during the year’s early months from about $900 million in January as Bitcoin itself slumped in value. The new data suggests people were trying to accumulate coins at lower prices, Kim Grauer, an economist at Chainalysis, said in a phone interview.
• That probably didn’t end well as Bitcoin tumbled 38 percent in November, according to prices tracked by Bloomberg. The researcher hasn’t yet analyzed data for that month. Even before the month began, Bitcoin was down more than 50 percent in 2018.

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• While there are 460 million Bitcoin addresses, only 27 million of them are actually controlled by people or companies that currently own Bitcoin, Chainalysis found.
• And only 20 percent of Bitcoin that moves is exchanged between two parties, according to Chainalysis. So while some $41 billion of transactions were executed between August and October, only $9 billion had real economic value, Chainalysis said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Olga Kharif in Portland at okharif@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, David Scheer, Dave Liedtka

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