K33: 79% of Bitcoin supply held by long-term holders

Research firm K33 reported that 79% of Bitcoin's circulating supply is held by long-term holders and that 218,421 BTC aged two years or more were reactivated by June 6.

K33 said Bitcoin rebounded about 6% over the past week to trade near $65,000 after two prior weeks of double-digit losses. The firm compared reactivation this year with prior cycles and highlighted a sharp decline in older coin movement.

K33’s Head of Research, Vetle Lunde, pointed to historical figures to show the change in selling activity. “The only year to experience lower reactivation of old supply by June 6 was 2012, when only 70,600 BTC aged two years or more had been reactivated by that date,” Lunde noted. He contrasted that with 1.18 million BTC reactivated by the same date in 2024.

The report said half of circulating supply was recently trading below the price those holders paid. K33 added that exchange-traded fund outflows that had pressured prices have eased and that trading volumes have declined toward yearly lows.

Some market participants offered more cautious views. Firms including Wintermute, Glassnode and Bitfinex warned that ETF flows, stablecoin growth and institutional demand remain insufficient to confirm a sustained market reversal. Several analysts still include scenarios in which prices fall toward $30,000 if selling resumes.

K33 listed recent events that may have affected crypto market liquidity, including a large initial public offering and an interim U.S.-Iran agreement. The firm said attention is on the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee meeting, the first under new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, with rates widely expected to be unchanged. K33 noted Bitcoin's 30-day correlation to the S&P 500 was near 0.6 and that shifts in Fed communication could influence price moves.

K33's findings are based on on-chain metrics, including coin age and reactivation, and the report compared those data points across cycles to measure how much older supply has returned to circulation this year.