80,000 Bitcoin millionaires wiped out in 2022 crypto crash

More than 80,000 bitcoin (BTC) investors have lost their millionaire status due to the cryptocurrency market's plunge, but lower prices mean the number of people holding the whole coin is on the rise.

A total of 108,886 Bitcoin addresses reported balances above $1 million on Nov. 12, just days after Bitcoin hit an all-time high of around $69,000, according to BitInfoCharts.

Fast-forward to today, and with the price of Bitcoin struggling to break through the $20,000 support level, only 26,284 addresses reportedly hold more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin, meaning that over the past nine months, Bitcoin’s book value has The number of millionaires on the Internet has dropped by more than 75%.

The sharp drop in bitcoin’s price has also affected the number of “whales” — those with bitcoin wallets worth more than $10 million. In November, there were 10,587 addresses with a minimum cash value of $10 million, while today only 4,342 addresses have a minimum cash value of $10 million, a drop of 58%.

Despite the decline in the net worth of former bitcoin millionaires, more than 13,000 new wholecoiners (wallets with one or more bitcoins) have joined the market in the bear market, bringing the total number of wholecoiners to more than 860,000 . The massive increase in Bitcoin wholecoiner shows that retail investors are accumulating large amounts of Bitcoin as the price of Bitcoin falls.

Further evidence that retail investors are accumulating Bitcoin, data from Glassnode shows that more than 250,000 addresses have increased their holdings by 0.1 BTC ($2,000) or more over the past 20 days.

Bitcoin and other digital asset markets have been negatively impacted by a range of different issues, including heightened regulatory scrutiny, ongoing geopolitical instability, rising inflation and rising interest rates.

With growing uncertainty over the stability of global markets, commentators seem to agree that risky assets such as bitcoin are likely to continue to fall for an extended period of time.

At press time, Bitcoin is changing hands at $20,005, down 1.63% in the past 24 hours and 37% in the past 30 days, with a current total market capitalization of $382 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.