Coin Metrics: What has changed in the crypto world since "312"?

On March 12, 2020, amid the rapidly spreading panic over COVID-19, Bitcoin (BTC) plummeted from around $8,000 to below $4,000 in 24 hours. Other parts of the crypto market have collapsed. Now, more than a year later, we look back at how much things have changed since that day.

While the price drop may have looked catastrophic at the time, in hindsight it was a great opportunity to invest in BTC and other crypto assets at a relatively good price.

As prices plunged on March 12, the ratio of market value to realized value (MVRV) plummeted to 0.88. MVRV is calculated by dividing the market value of a bitcoin by its realized market value. Historically, periods when MVRV has fallen below 1.0 have been the best times to invest in BTC.

That measure remained unchanged during the March 12 plunge. On March 12, 2020, BTC's price closed at $4,959. On March 12, 2021, it closed at $57,335, an increase of more than 10 times (1000%).

Similarly, Ethereum (Ethereum) has seen tremendous growth in the last year. Ethereum closed at $110 on March 12, 2020, and at $1,768 on March 12, 2021, an increase of more than 16 times (1,600%).

Source: Coin Metrics Network Data Charts

The adoption rate has also increased dramatically in the past year. The figure below shows the growth of addresses each holding at least 0.0000001% of the total supply. Ethereum addresses grew by 55%, from 2.52 million to 3.9 million, while BTC grew by 11%, from 5.98 million to 6.65 million.

Source: Coin Metrics Network Data Charts

But BTC Whale addresses are growing faster than Ethereum Whale addresses. The figure below shows the number of addresses holding at least 0.01% of the total supply. Notably, BTC whale addresses began to increase shortly after the slump, with big rises in November, December and January. This may be due to a surge in institutional investors throughout the year. The number of BTC addresses with a supply of at least 0.01 percent rose from 993 on March 12, 2020, to 1,057 a year later, peakingat 1,243 on December 27, 2020.

The BTC giant whale dropped sharply at the end of December 2020. This is probably due to one familyexchange(or several exchanges) to consolidate and reorganize addresses, but the reasons are unclear.

Unlike BTC, the Ethereum Whale declined immediately after the crash and kept falling for most of the year. But they started to increase in 2021, which could be a signal for institutional investors to move in. As of March 12, 2021, there were 1,066 Ethereum addresses with at least 0.01% supply, up 8% from 983 in March 2020.

Source: Coin Metrics Network Data Charts

Since the stock market crash,Stable currencyThere was also a huge increase. Initially, stablecoins were probably used to sit on the sidelines during market fluctuations. After the BTC fell, many rushed into the stablecoin offeringsecurity. But since then, stablecoin use cases have boomed. Stablecoins are now widely used for decentralizationfinancial(DeFi) and increasingly used to move money around the world. Stablecoins are also used for transactions, they are used to move in and out of other crypto assets.

Since March 12, 2020, DAI,USDCAnd TRON's Tether (USDT_TRX)& NBSP; Supply has increased at least 17-fold. Overall, the total stablecoin supply grew from about $6.4 billion to more than $55 billion during the year.

Source: Coin Metrics Network Data Charts

USDT_TRX, in particular, went from almost nothing to one of the largest stablecoins in the world today. The number of addresses in which USDT_TRX holds at least $1 has increased more than 74 times from last year. In March 2020, there were 17,258 USDT_TRX addresses holding at least $1. Now there are more than 1.3 million.

Source: Coin Metrics Network Data Charts

Removing USDT_TRX from the figure shows that most of the other major stablecoins also saw significant growth. USDC has been particularly strong in 2021, with addresses holding at least $1 increasing more than ninefold since March 2020, to about 493K.

Source: Coin Metrics Network Data Charts

But USDC and USDT_TRX are much closer in terms of the value of on-chain transfers (30-day average). Although USDT_TRX holds more than twice as many addresses as USDC with at least $1, the two stables transfer similar amounts of money on the chain each day. This is because most transfers of USDT_TRX are small compared to USDC. While USDT_TRX's daily transaction volume is about 9 times that of USDC, the median transfer value of USDC is about 12 times that of USDT_TRX.

Source: Coin Metrics Network Data Charts

Since March 2020, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stablecoin, and cryptography in general have all evolved dramatically. The market is maturing rapidly, with a new wave of institutional and retail investors coming in. As activity continues to increase and the industry continues to evolve, next year is sure to bring another wave of big changes.

Network data analysis

Summary indicators

Source: Coin Metrics Network Data Pro

In the past week, BTC's market capitalisation has topped $1tn, with prices climbing back above $60,000. On-chain usage is up across the board, with BTC, Ethereum, Tether, USDC and UNI all seeing increased activity. Bitcoin and Ethereum also continue to grow in computing power. Bitcoin's computing power rose 1.7 percent month-on-week, while Ethereum's computing power rose 2.2 percent, buoyed by rising earnings from miners.

The network window

The number of BTCs held by exchanges continued to climb in 2021. After reaching an all-time high in early 2020, BTC held by exchanges declined after the March 2020 crash and continued to trend downward for most of the year. But in November 2020, the trend reversed, largely thanks to increased supply held by Binance and Gpini. This potential signal is that a large number of retail traders are keeping Bitcoin on exchanges rather than on their ownThe walletIn the.

Source: Coin Metrics Network Data Charts

The amount of Ethereum held by exchanges peaked in July 2020, but has been declining ever since. This may be at least in part due to traders taking their Ethereum off a centralized exchange and trading it on a decentralized exchange, or participating in other parts of decentralized finance (DEFI). In particular, the supply of Bitcoin holders Bitfinex and Huobi has fallen sharply.

Source: Coin Metrics Network Data Charts

This is also reflected in the number of unique transfers sent to the exchange. In 2021, BTC transfers to exchanges have been growing, but Ethereum transfers to exchanges have been relatively flat. BTC and Ethereum transfers to exchanges are still well below their 2018 peaks, which could indicate that retail trading has yet to reach levels seen at the peak of the bull market in 2017.

Source: Coin Metrics Network Data Charts