Long-term Bitcoin holders now control a record 14.599 million BTC, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode.

Over the past seven days, the total balance held in these wallets has increased by 43,949 Bitcoin or $1.274 billion in current prices.

Long-term Bitcoin holders are addresses that have held coins for at least 155 days. According to Glassnode, previous research shows that this type of address is statistically unlikely to spend, and thus, in Bitcoin slang, assumed to be HODLing.

The amount held by long-term holders also accounts for 75% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply, suggesting investors are opting to hold onto their assets for extended periods of time.

In February, long-term Bitcoin holders controlled as much as 78% of the network’s circulating supply. Still, this sustained pattern of long-term holding may indicate a growing belief in the leading cryptocurrency’s potential to serve as both a store of value.

Bitcoin’s realized volatility hits historic lows

Checkmate, a pseudonymous on-chain analyst at Glassnode, has meanwhile pointed to the fact that the realized volatility for Bitcoin has also plunged to historical lows.

“Across 1-month to 1-yr timeframes, this is the quietest we have seen the corn since after March 2020,” wrote Checkmate. “Historically, such low volatility aligns with the post-bear-market hangover periods (re-accumulation phase).”

Realized volatility, sometimes referred to as historical volatility, refers to the price volatility an asset experiences over a specific period. It's typically calculated based on the change from one closing price to the next.

Bitcoin is currently changing hands at $29,010, down 0.1% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency is also down 4.3% in the past month, after hitting levels above $31,500 in mid-July amid a new wave of Bitcoin ETF applications.

Still, Bitcoin is up 75% since the start of the year, solidly overperforming leading stock indexes such as Nasdaq Composite (+33% YTD), S&P 500 (+17% YTD), and Dow Jones (+5.82%).