Bitcoin (BTC) accumulation is nearing a new milestone this Christmas as the redistribution of the BTC supply continues.

Data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode shows that the total BTC balance of so-called “accumulation addresses” is nearing all-time highs.

“HODL-only’ BTC addresses climb closer to 1 million mark

Behind the scenes in the 2022 Bitcoin bear market, certain entities are in no doubt about their BTC investment strategy.

According to Glassnode, Bitcoin accumulation addresses are more numerous than ever before, while the BTC balance they contain is almost at a record high.

“Accumulation addresses are defined as addresses that have at least 2 incoming non-dust transfers and have never spent funds,” the firm’s description explains.

Glassnode adds that exchange wallets and those belonging to miners are excluded from the tally alongside addresses last active more than seven years ago, as funds they contain could be lost — permanently cut off from circulation.

Despite this, accumulation addresses contained a total of 3,099,828 BTC as of Dec. 25.

That number is increasingly closing in on the all-time high of 3,403,280 BTC seen in August 2015. Since Christmas 2021, the accumulation address balance has increased by around 18%.

As of Dec. 25, there were a total of 793,591 qualifying accumulation addresses.

“Bullish” whale selling?

Meanwhile, on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant argued in a separate analysis that despite larger hodlers reducing their BTC exposure, the overall long-term trend remained bullish.

Related: Bitcoin exchange withdrawals sink to 7-month low as users forget FTX

“Larger (whales) holders selling into smaller holders (retail) is really want YOU want to see if you believe in a longer-term Bitcoin thesis. Bitcoin becomes more distributed on the network. It is on the hands of more investors other than in the hands of a few whales. And that is only a good thing,” contributor Maartunn wrote in a blog post on Dec. 21.

“On the lower timeframe, this is still an on-going risk. But in the larger perspective, I am very confident this is healty for the bitcoin-network as a whole.”

Accompanying charts showed changes in unspent transaction output (UTXO) value, with transactions worth between 0.1 BTC and 1 BTC markedly increasing in Q4.

As Cointelegraph reported, an uptick in smaller BTC wallet numbers came as a result of the FTX implosion, with users rushing to remove coins from custodial exchanges.

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