Bitcoin Addresses With Non-zero Balance Hit New Record High – Will New Investors Pump the BTC Price?

cryptonews.com:

The number of Bitcoin wallet addresses holding a non-zero balance of the world’s first, most popular and largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization hit a new record high this week, suggesting the Bitcoin network’s global adoption continues to press ahead despite 2022’s challenging bear market and a tough global economic outlook for 2023.

According to data presented by crypto analytics firm Glassnode, the number of Bitcoin addresses with a non-zero balance rose above 43.8 million on Wednesday the 8th of January for the first time. That took the number of addresses above the previous record high printed back in mid-November 2022 of 43.76 million.

Back in November, the collapse of what had formerly been one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world FTX, which resulted in customers losing access to billions in funds, triggered a shift towards crypto self-custody. Investors rushed to get their Bitcoin off exchanges, triggering a surge in address numbers at the time.

However, capitulation as Bitcoin’s price fell to fresh 2022 lows in wake of jitters about contagion from FTX’s bankruptcy saw many wallets get rid of all of their Bitcoin, triggering an equally swift pullback in non-zero address numbers.

It has taken a roughly 40% surge in Bitcoin’s price since the start of the year amid 1) optimism for a better macro backdrop in 2023 and 2) increased on-chain and technical signs that the Bitcoin bear market is over to entice enough new investors back into the Bitcoin market to get the non-zero wallet address count back to a record high.

According to Glassnode data on Bitcoin wallet address cohorts, the most recent surge in non-zero address numbers has been (unsurprisingly) led by a surge in wallets holding a small