Bitcoin ‘Active Entities’ at Highest Since 2017 Bull Run

An on-chain metric suggests the Bitcoin network is garnering users despite the cryptocurrency’s extended period of comatose price action.

• The seven-day moving average of Bitcoin's "active entities" rose to 305,355 on Tuesday to hit the highest level since Dec. 23, 2017, according to blockchain analytics firm Glassnode.
• The previous 1.5-year high of 301,870 was reached on May 12.
• The average has risen by 14% this month.
• Glassnode defines active entities as a "cluster of addresses controlled by the same network entity." This would include both businesses like exchanges and custodians and individuals.
• The rise suggests that the number of users of the network is the highest since the cryptocurrency topped out at $20,000 in December 2017.

• Matthew Dibb, co-founder of Stack, a provider of cryptocurrency trackers and index funds, told CoinDesk the climbing metric is the result of the DeFi frenzy spilling over onto bitcoin.
• The surge in active entities also suggests users are anticipating an uptick in bitcoin’s price volatility, he added.
• While user numbers may be up, bitcoin's network activity is not at similar highs.
• The seven-day moving average of bitcoin’s transaction count has increased by 23% over the past four months, but is well below the 2020 high registered on March 5.
• Bitcoin is stuck in the narrow range of $9,400 to $9,000 for the fourth straight week, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index.

Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing.