Bitcoin: How HODLing seems to be the best bet for investors now

• Bitcoin’s hashrate has climbed to a new all-time high.
• Investors continue to hold on to their coins despite the price surge.

In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), data provider Glassnode delved into how the highly anticipated ETF approval has impacted Bitcoin’s [BTC] on-chain activity. 

After many months of speculation, the #Bitcoin asset class enters a new paradigm as the SEC approved the listing and trading of 11 Spot #Bitcoin ETFs.

In this thread, will we explore the current state of the chain following the significant ETF annoucement.🧵 pic.twitter.com/iFdX6kGcGR

— glassnode (@glassnode) January 11, 2024

BTC on the chain

According to Glassnode, there has been an “aggressive” spike in the network’s hashrate since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave its approval on 10th January. 

When the Bitcoin network experiences a hike in hashrate, it means there is a significant uptick in the computational power dedicated to securing the network, suggesting a rally in usage. 

As user activity climbed on the network following the SEC’s approval, its hashrate clinched an all-time high of 600 EH/s. 

According to Glassnode:

“This is equivalent to 600 quintillion guesses every second in an attempt to solve the Block puzzle.”

Still growing, the Bitcoin network’s hashrate was 630 EH/s at press time.

Source: Glassnode

Glassnode found further that there has been a rise in the volume of BTC transactions settled on-chain since the approval was announced. This underscores a notable surge in the count of trades involving BTC.

Also depicting an increase in investor activity since 10th January, BTC’s daily inflows into and outflows from exchanges currently stand at $4.6 billion. 

Source: Glassnode

In the coin’s derivatives market, futures open interest continues to climb. As of this writing, it was $17.98 billion.

According to Glassnode, this figure marks one of the larger values recorded in the past 146 trading days since November 2020.

Source: Glassnode

Interestingly, the count of BTC Futures Contracts using Crypto-Margined collateral has dipped to an all-time low, Glassnode found.  The data provider said:

“However, when assessing the collateral structure for Futures Contracts, a significant improvement can be noted with only 21.8% of the Open Interest using Crypto-Margined collateral.”

This means that only 21.8% of all outstanding Futures Contracts are backed by BTC itself as investors seek collaterals in other assets such as stablecoins. 

This trend is a positive one, as it can help ensure increased stability and maturity in the BTC Futures market due to decreased reliance on the coin itself as collateral.

Read Bitcoin’s [BTC] Price Prediction 2024-25

Despite the recent price rally to multi-month highs, most coin holders have refused to sell. 

Glassnode stated,

“However, HODLing remains the primary market dynamic despite the rampant increase in price action.”