The ‘Bitcoin Rich List’ Has Grown 30% in the Last Year, But Why?

The Bitcoin Rich List has grown over the past 12 months, or the number of addresses holding more than 1,000 BTC, possibly reflecting an influx of high-net worth investors.

According to data from Coin Metrics, the metric has recorded growth of 30% since September 2018. The figure shows a similar increase even when adjusted to exclude addresses known to belong to exchanges.

At press time, as per BitInfoCharts ‘ Bitcoin Rich List, 2,148 addresses contain more than 1,000 bitcoins, representing just 0.01 percent of all bitcoin addresses.

As seen in the fever line chart above, over the past 12 months, the list has seen an almost 90-degree rise. Investor and analyst Willy Woo believes that the list has expanded due mainly to increased market involvement of investors:

“The two options are we have high-net-worth investors coming in or it could be cold storage practice at the exchanges and custody solutions. The latter explanation cannot be ruled out, but it does not coincide with other data we have on the timing of when supply increased at these entities. For now, I’m going with the first explanation.”