In order to hold Bitcoin a user needs to have a Bitcoin address. This address can be on an exchange, hardware wallet, software wallet, or paper wallet. Any user could have multiple wallets and therefore multiple Bitcoin addresses.
There are a few ways to track Bitcoin address metrics to see growth on the network. Today, we will discuss two:
- Number of new addresses
- Number of Addresses with a Non-Zero Balance
Bitcoin: Number of New Addresses
The number of new addresses on the Bitcoin network has seen a steady climb since 2011. The massive spike in late 2017/early 2018 happened during the last bull cycle. Towards the end of the bull market many retail traders entered creating a huge rush in new addresses before the Bitcoin price dumped.
Since that period, Bitcoin has seen a steady rise in new addresses without that huge spike. This signals a lot of organic growth within the network from new adoption as opposed to growth from hype like late 2017. You’ll notice at massive price corrections the number of new addresses also takes a correction before proceeding back up like in the summer of this year.
Number of Addresses with a Non-Zero Balance
Comparing that to Bitcoin addresses with a non-zero balance we can see that the growth in addresses that actually have Bitcoin on them is reaching new highs along with price. Currently there are about 39 million addresses with a non-zero balance.
Another factor thats interesting is the slope of the curve. It doesn’t have that steep slope like we see in 2017. This signals that massive retail inflow hasn’t yet happened.
Regardless of price, both these charts showcase that despite the naysayers the Bitcoin network is seeing huge organic growth which is a great sign for the future of decentralized money.
These metrics look very similar to a typical technology growth curve for apps like Facebook, Twitter, and and other tech company in a growth phase. Bitcoin is a technology play with a store of value narrative.
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