Around 270,000 bitcoin, worth about $8.5 billion, has been moved from exchanges to individual’s wallets according to data analytics startup Glassnode.

“Not only are funds being withdrawn from exchanges, but coins are continuously moving to strong hands,” they say. “In the past 30 days, around 270,000 BTC moved to entities considered HODLers.”

In the above chart, green suggests funds are moving to exchanges while red indicates they are moving out.

In 2019 for example, we can see a lot more were being sent to exchanges than withdrawn.

In late 2020 and for much of this year however that has changed and at an accelerating speed for January.

That suggests there’s less supply taking part in price setting as people hold, but this might not necessarily be instantly reflected on the price as the effects of supply and demand tend to take some time.

That’s especially because of Over the Counter (OTC) markets where block purchases or sales are generally reflected on the price a month later or so.

Yet we can clearly see the trend for now, but this is probably more a lagging indicator as someone has to buy first and then withdraw.

So showing more the strength of recent demand, with it to be seen how it will continue in the weeks and months to come.