CRYPTO MOVERS AND PRICES
Crypto was broadly up this morning with spot volumes exceeding the 30-day average. KLAY, the native currency of the Klaytn blockchain, was outperforming in the Top 20 and was up 21%.
Crypto Story of the Day
BTC has been trading in a range between USD 50,000 and 60,000 since making record highs of USD 61,800 on March 13. Particular metrics, such as exchange balances of BTC, have remained in consistent patterns. We highlight some notable data points through this rally and consolidation.
BTC Mining-Related Metrics
BTC network metrics show the 7-day moving average of the BTC hash rate, an estimation of the computing power processing transactions, reached a record high on Thursday. BTC mining difficulty, a measure of the computing power required to produce new BTC and process transactions, has also reached an all-time high. The next difficulty adjustment, expected to take place on Thursday based on current network performance, will likely further increase the metric by about 6%.
The size of the BTC mempool, transactions waiting to be added to blocks and confirmed, has seen sustained elevation since the new year, indicating some network congestion. However the size of the BTC mempool is well below levels seen during the 2017 bull market when the weekly transaction on the network reached 2.81 million, compared to 2.07 million in the previous week.
Network Usage
The number of weekly active addresses, defined as those addresses that either sent or received BTC, saw a record high of 6.75 million in early January, topping the previous record high of 6.42 million achieved in December 2017.
BTC Exchange and Wallet Balances
BTC balances on exchanges, a notable metric in this bull run, have continued to decline since that metric reached an all-time high in March 2020. A year ago, major exchanges held 3.05 million BTC, or 16.58% of the total supply. This is compared to a current balance of 2.42 million BTC, or 13% of the total supply. This pattern has been most pronounced with Coinbase, which in March 2020 held 5.5% of the coin’s total supply, decreasing to a current 4.32%.
Addresses containing more than 10,000 BTC began decreasing in November when the coin’s price stood at about USD 17,000 and have reached a low previously of 89, previously seen in 2013. Similarly, the number of addresses with a balance greater than 1,000 BTC have been decreasing since February when the asset’s price equaled roughly USD 44,000.
Google Search Trends
Google searches for "bitcoin" remain elevated, though they haven’t surpassed 70% of the volumes seen during the 2017 bull run. In the past 7 days, Turkey has led Google searches for “bitcoin,” coinciding with refreshed monetary anxiety in the country. In the U.S., Google searches for "inflation"— a topic central to ongoing discourse related to BTC— reached a nearly 12-year high.
Globally, searches for "inflation" show a different pattern, and though they were elevated compared to previous years, they were higher in 2008 than they are currently. In the U.S., searches for "investing" have also reached record highs after previously peaking in 2005