OLD COINS, CDD AND VDD
Are Old Bitcoins Waking Up?
When Bitcoin held for five years or more starts moving, history says it matters.
How busy old-coin movement has been, ranked against its trailing four years. The tall peaks (near 100) are bursts of long-held coins waking up — historically clustered near cycle tops; the troughs are the quiet stretches.
What’s the read right now?
SITTING STILLOld coins are sitting still — almost none of the deep-held supply has moved this month.
How does that compare to the past four years?
Old-coin movement is at the 15th percentile of the last four years — near the quiet end.
Who’s sitting on the oldest coins?
The old supplyAbout a third of all Bitcoin hasn’t moved in five years or more. The deepest slice — still untouched after a decade — is the largest. Some of it is lost for good; the rest is the patient deep base.
5 – 7 years7.3%7 – 10 years8.3%10+ years17.6%Held five years or more33.2%Does the dollar value of those coins change the read?
Price-adjusted view (VDD)This version weights each move by Bitcoin’s price at the time — the dollar value changing hands, not just the volume.
Today’s price-adjusted read: extremely quietBoth reads agree: old-coin movement is exceptionally quiet right now — by raw volume and by dollar value alike. When they line up like this, the signal is stronger.
What’s changed recently?
- Old coins have been sitting still for the past 8 days.
- Old-coin movement has been cooling — the deep base is holding tighter than six months ago.
- 17.6% of all Bitcoin hasn’t moved in ten years or more.
- 33.2% has sat untouched for five years or more.
What would change this read?
- If old-coin activity climbs while price is rising, that has historically signalled profit-taking near tops.
- A sharp spike during a price drop usually signals give-up selling — painful, but historically close to bottoms.
- For now the deep base is sitting still — the read only gets interesting if that changes.
Understanding Old Coin Activity
Not all Bitcoin movements carry the same weight. A coin held for three years moving is a far bigger deal than a coin bought yesterday moving. This page tracks the coins that have sat untouched the longest — the deep holders — and watches whether they're starting to wake up.
When old coins sit still through a price drop, that's confidence: owners who've lived through worse aren't selling. When they start moving during a rally, that's usually profit-taking — and in past cycles, sustained old-coin movement during a run-up has shown up near the top.
Five-year-plus coins are the cleanest read because that age filters out anyone trading the current cycle — what's left is the strongest base on the network. Under the hood this draws on two long-standing measures of old-coin movement, Coin Days Destroyed and its dollar-weighted cousin Value Days Destroyed, but you never need those names to read the page.