Though the road has been rocky, with the 12 months starting in May 2022 being particularly dark for the industry, cryptocurrencies have, nonetheless, shown their resilience and continued their integration with the global financial systems.
So far, 2024 is proving to be a particularly eventful year given that it started with the approval of the U.S.’ first-ever spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) – instruments that have already done much to expand investors’ exposure to the crypto market.
Bitcoin adoption is also evident in another statistic – the number of addresses that hold at least $1 worth of the coin.
Indeed, in 2022, Finbold reported that there are as many as 35 million addresses holding at least $1 worth of BTC – up to 0.4% of the global population at the time.
Figures retrieved in May 2024 from BitInfoCharts.com indicate that the number has risen significantly, and there are, in fact, as many as 84 million such addresses. This means that approximately one out of every 96 people in the world might own at least some Bitcoin – slightly more than 1% of the global population of 8.1 billion.
It is important to note that this figure represents an upper bound, as a single individual may hold Bitcoin in multiple accounts, resulting in more than one address per person.
Likewise, at least some of the rise might be accounted for by the increase in the price of the cryptocurrency as Bitcoin price today stands at $69,953 following a 66.10% year-to-date (YTD) rise.
Drivers for Bitcoin ownership
It is, in general, likely that the ongoing crypto market boom is responsible for the number of relevant Bitcoin addresses as investors were likely keen to take advantage of the rally.
The trend was only boosted by the bullish forecasts surrounding the latest BTC halving event – which occurred in April – and by the mainstream legitimization offered by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of Bitcoin ETFs.
Indeed, though many prominent cryptocurrency advocates are generally not appreciative of SEC’s hawkish approach to the industry, there is a strong possibility that the higher levels of discussion stemming from enforcement actions – along with the sense of a lawman arriving in the Wild West – has done much to make digital assets appear as sensible investments to more traditional traders.
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