People & supply · 6 min read · Historical snapshot

Who are Bitcoin's long-term holders?

One-minute answer: Long-term-holder charts group coins by how long they have stayed still. SafuTrading's supply measure uses coins unmoved for six months or more. A rising line means more supply aged into that patient group.

What it actually means

The blockchain does not label a person as patient. It only shows when each coin last moved. Analysts use coin age as a practical stand-in: coins that have stayed still for months have historically been less likely to sell during short-term panic.

HODL Waves split the supply into age bands. The long-term-holder supply adds the older bands together. This measures coins, not the number of people who own them.

What to look for

Older bands expand — More coins have remained unmoved long enough to age into the older group.
Older bands shrink — Old coins moved, or younger coins did not age fast enough to replace them.
LTH supply rises — More Bitcoin sits in coins at least six months old, reducing the readily moving supply by this definition.
LTH supply falls during a rally — Patient holders are moving coins while price is strong, which can indicate distribution.

Worked example

A rise from 14.2 million BTC to 14.6 million BTC over three months means about 400,000 more BTC qualified as at least six months old at the end of that period.

What this cannot tell you

Stillness does not prove conviction. Coins can be lost, locked, held by an exchange or simply forgotten.
One owner can move coins between personal wallets and reset the age without selling.
SafuTrading uses a six-month band, slightly stricter than the common 155-day industry cut-off.

Data source

Bitcoin coin-age bands and SafuTrading's own Bitcoin-node rebuild; the page labels the last complete date for snapshot rows.

Open HODL Waves — The share of Bitcoin supply grouped by how long each coin has remained unmoved.