The active supply of Bitcoin and Ethereum is at record lows

Quick Take

  • The supply of bitcoin and ether that has moved in the last year has fallen to a record low, according to data from The Block. 
  •  Only 30% of bitcoin and 39% of ether has moved in the past year, the lowest values on record since data collection began in 2017. 

The percentage of tokens that have moved in the past year has fallen to record lows for both bitcoin and ether, according to data from The Block. 

At its peak, over 59% of bitcoin's supply was active between March 2017 and 2018. However, in the past year, only 30.12% of bitcoin's supply has changed hands. Ether, which saw over 86% of its supply move between July 2016 and 2017, also hit a record low, with only 39.15% of its supply changing hands in the past year. 

For bitcoin, the record low active supply comes ahead of the anticipated halving of block emission rewards, currently projected to occur in April of next year. The percentage of tokens that haven't been touched for three and five years are also at record lows, according to The Block's data. 

Only 58.58% of the supply of bitcoin has changed hands in the past three years, compared to over 73% at its peak in late 2019, whereas the five-year active supply has fallen from a maximum of 83% to 70.13%. However, while the supply of inactive coins is higher than ever, transactions on the network are also near their peak.


© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

Zack Abrams is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. Before coming to The Block, he was the Head Writer at Coinage, a Web3 media outlet covering the biggest stories in Web3. The story he co-reported on Do Kwon won a 2022 Best in Business Journalism award from SABEW. Other projects included a deep dive into SBF's defense based on exclusive documents and unveiling the identity of the hacker behind one of 2023's biggest crypto hacks — so far. He can be reached via X @zackdabrams or email, [email protected].

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