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Bitcoin’s active address momentum has sunk to its weakest point since April 2018, even as a separate index tracking overall network health has crossed into what analysts call a bull phase for the first time in roughly a year.
A Market Driven By Fewer, More Committed Players
The active addresses momentum metric dropped to -0.25 on April 6, according to CryptoQuant data. The figure tracks how fast the number of active addresses is changing, and a negative reading points to shrinking user participation.
Low readings like this have persisted since July 2025 — a stretch that mirrors a similar period in 2024 that was followed by a 35% price drop.
Crypto analyst Gaah, writing on CryptoQuant, says the numbers reflect the absence of short-term traders from the market. What remains, the analyst argues, is a base of long-term holders focused on steady buying rather than trading.
Yet even as daily user activity contracts, wallets tied to long-term and retail-linked investors have been filling up. Data shows BTC held in accumulating address cohorts has reached 4.37 million coins as of Tuesday — more than double the roughly 2 million held by the same group in early 2024.
Retail-linked addresses alone added approximately 857,000 BTC, while wallets that buy at regular intervals with few outflows grew their combined holdings to nearly 1.30 million BTC. All of this happened while Bitcoin’s price stayed below $70,000 for the entire first quarter of 2026.
Exchange Inflows Slow To A Fraction Of Prior Cycles
Coin movement through centralized exchanges has dropped sharply compared to earlier growth periods. During the 2023 to 2024 expansion, inflows from highly active addresses often ran between 1.2 million and 1.5 million BTC.
Reports indicate recent figures average between 300,000 and 350,000 BTC — roughly a quarter of that pace. Less coin is cycling through trading platforms, and more is being held off-market in long-term storage.
That shift is tightening the available supply. When fewer coins sit on exchanges ready to be sold, the liquid supply shrinks, and the market becomes more sensitive to any uptick in demand.
Network Activity Index Crosses A Key Threshold
The CryptoQuant Bitcoin network activity index climbed to 3,600 from 3,320 on March 22. The index pulls together transaction counts and broader throughput signals into a single reading. It crossed above its 365-day moving average for the first time since December 2024, a level CryptoQuant associates with a bull phase — the first such signal since April 2025.
The split between the two metrics tells an unusual story. One index is flashing positive. The other is at an eight-year low. Reports suggest the current phase is being pushed along by accumulation rather than by widespread network use or new participants entering the market.
Bitcoin was trading at $72,045 at the time of publication, up nearly 5% on the day.
Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView
