Approximately 73% of bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) is held by long-term investors, versus 58% for ether (ETH), Chainalysis has found. According to a recent blog post, the average BTC held in a self-hosted wallet was purchased ~150 weeks ago. At the same time, the average ETH stored in a cold wallet was bought ~75 weeks ago.
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"In other words, cryptocurrency users hold Bitcoin for roughly twice as long as they do Ethereum and more than 20x longer than they do stablecoins," Chainalysis added.
Moreover, analysts at the New York-based blockchain analytics firm believe that institutional investors "likely accounted" for 69% of all bitcoin transaction volume during the time period studied.
The data particularly shows that mainstream financial institutions have embraced bitcoin as a long-term investment, Chainalysis notes. This is reinforced by a high percentage of the cryptocurrency being stored for long periods of time compared to other altcoins.
The recent study comes after Chainalysis raised $100 million in a Series E funding round led by Coatue. The other investors such as Benchmark, Accel, Addition, Dragoneer, and others also joined the round. The latest investment round brings Chainalysis' valuation to $4.2 billion.
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