Bitcoin (BTC) hitting its highest in over a year was different from the 2022 bull run because exchange balances fell, a new study says.

Published on Sep. 21 and seen past Cointelegraph, Delphi Digital's Bitcoin Outlook highlights unique trends in BTC cost activity.

Report: Bitcoin hodlers at present have "longer time horizons"

According to the three researchers who compiled the report, Bitcoin reaching $12,500 last month had little in common with its run to $13,800 in 2022.

This is considering exchange balances at the time increased, while this year, they continued falling despite price rises. As such, overall selling pressure among traders and investors is less this time effectually.

"Dissimilar the 2022 price uptrend, which coincided with BTC stock increasing, this current trend has seen a divergence between BTC stock and price," the researchers argue.

"This suggests a more than sustainable move upwards for BTC, in comparison to that of 2022 every bit data indicates a holder base with longer fourth dimension horizons."

The findings chime with other recent inquiry into hodler beliefs, with on-concatenation analyst CryptoQuant reaching similar conclusions regarding exchange balances.

Bitcoin held on exchanges has declined from all-time highs of 2.96 meg BTC in February to press-time levels of 2.59 1000000 BTC. BTC/USD is trading in a similar range to that date — $10,430 versus $ix,580 on February. 20.

Bitcoin exchange balances 6-month chart

Bitcoin commutation balances 6-calendar month chart. Source: Glassnode

"Healthy" BTC demand laps up miner outflows

Continuing, Delphi notes that other factors could serve to change hodlers' habits. For example, they could be using stablecoins as collateral for trades or simply leaving BTC on exchanges instead of making the endeavor to shop them in individual wallets.

"When price increases and BTC stock decreases, this indicates a BTC aggregating tendency," the researchers withal state.

As Cointelegraph reported, Bitcoin volatility did produce cursory periods of unrest for miners despite network fundamentals at present sitting at best highs.

Inflows of BTC from mining pools to exchanges have seen several spikes in recent months, but as time goes on, Delphi notes, their impact is becoming less of an issue.

"On September 13th, we saw the largest daily yearly inflow coming in at 1114 BTC. Notably, this did not trigger negative toll action," the report adds.

"The recent large inflows (marked past the green bubbling) were met with sufficient bids, indicating a healthy demand side."

On Twitter, Paul Burlage, one of the researchers, drew specific attention to the growth in Bitcoin whales now moving in tandem with price growth.

Bitcoin whale vs. price growth trends

Bitcoin whale vs. price growth trends. Source: Delphi Digital

Going forward, threats to Bitcoin stability notably come from outside, with both safe havens and traditional macro assets hinging on strength in the U.S. dollar.