The Amount of Bitcoin Held By Long Term Investors Reached Fresh All-Time Highs This Week

Long-term investors' holdings of bitcoin hit new all-time highs this week as the cryptocurrency started its third month of advances.

As of Wednesday at press time, the total value of bitcoin in circulation was $16.8 billion, based on information from CoinMarketCap, an analytics firm that monitors prices across exchanges. That is a 45 percent gain from January 1 and a 10 percent increase from previous week.

The most recent advances follow bitcoin's Monday all-time high of $19,500, which it subsequently dropped below $14,000. On Tuesday, the price of bitcoin momentarily reached its highest level in over two weeks before tumbling below $13,000 later in the day. Since then, it has recovered, trading at around $14,400 as of Wednesday afternoon press time.

Strong demand for digital assets from both consumers and major financial institutions has propelled the recent increase, according to experts at exchange operator Gemini Trust Co. (Gemini) and streamer investor Galaxy Digital Capital Management LP (Galaxy).