BITCOIN SUPPLY BY VINTAGE YEAR

What is a year’s class?

Every coin carries a simple timestamp: the last time it moved. Group all coins by the calendar year of that move and you get vintages, the Class of 2013, the Class of 2021, and so on. A coin that moves today leaves its old class and joins this year’s. See the same idea by holding time.

Is the Class of 2013 everyone who bought in 2013?

No, and that is why this page says last moved rather than bought. The blockchain records when each coin last changed hands, not who bought it first. A coin that moves today leaves its old year and joins this one, even if the same person still owns it. So an old class shrinking means its coins are moving on, and an old class holding steady means that generation genuinely has not touched its coins.

What do the old classes tell you?

Coins still tagged 2013 have not moved for over a decade, so their owners have held through several complete market cycles. The size of each old class is a direct measure of how much conviction that generation still has.

Where does each year’s price come from?

The average price per class comes from the prices at which those coins last moved, not from anyone’s original purchase. Dividing today’s price by that average gives the class’s profit multiple. The earliest years have no meaningful price, Bitcoin traded for fractions of a cent or nothing at all, so this page shows no multiple there rather than an invented number.

What pattern should you watch?

The recent years. The newest years are usually the biggest, because coins keep changing hands. When a young class shrinks fast, its coins are moving on, either sold or settling into new hands. When it holds its size year after year, a new generation of patient holders is forming.