Glassnode information analyzed by CryptoSlate exhibits that 450,000 Bitcoin (BTC) held on an alternate or a scorching pockets earlier than 2022 have been moved to chilly storage all year long.

Within the final 12 months, the market has seen a number of black swan occasions that led to round 550,000 BTC abandoning exchanges’ reserves. On a couple of event, these reserves shrunk in huge chunks. Binance, for instance, misplaced 90,000 BTC in seven days in Dec, FTX misplaced 70,000 BTC in two weeks in June, and eventually, Coinbase misplaced 200,000 BTC inside 4 days in November.

The orange line within the chart beneath represents the whole BTC quantity held on crypto exchanges because the starting of the yr.

The exchanges began the yr with just under $2.8 million in BTC and ended with round $2.25 million, which equals a drop of round 20%. The present BTC reserves held on exchanges equate to lower than 12% of the whole BTC provide.

Self custody

This yr additionally witnessed over one million BTC getting into self-custody. The orange line on the chart beneath exhibits the illiquid BTC provide stage, which attracts an growing line.

Illiquid BTC provide was recorded as 14 million in January and above 15 million in December. This additionally signifies that 78% of the circulating BTC provide is held in chilly storage.

Contemplating that solely 550,000 BTC left the exchanges all through 2022, it may be stated that the remaining 450,000 BTC was moved from exchanges or scorching wallets to chilly storage in 2021 and the years prior.