Almost 30,000 Bitcoin millionaires have been wiped in the last three months as the volatile cryptocurrency has fallen from $69,000 in November to nearly $36,000 (as of Thursday) due to regulatory scrutiny and geopolitical unrest.
According to data obtained by the financial news portal Finbold, the number of Bitcoin addresses holding more than $1 million decreased by 28,186, or 24.26 percent, between October and January.
Over the last three months, the Bitcoin-rich list has plummeted.
“Wallets holding over $100,000 have dropped 30.04 per cent from 505,711 to 353,763. The number of addresses with $1 million and above dropped 23.5 per cent from 105,820 to 80,945. Wallets holding over $10 million and above also registered a drop of 32.08 per cent from 10,319 to 7,008,” the report mentioned
The drop in the Bitcoin rich list correlates with the asset’s volatility that has been heightened in recent weeks.
“A combination of factors such as regulatory scrutiny, turbulent markets, geopolitical unrest, and Covid combined with having an adverse effect on the asset’s performance. However, despite the volatile start to the year, a number of analysts continue to laud the asset as a hedge against rising inflation,” the report elaborated.
The number of liquidations has increased in recent weeks as a result of the rapid decline in the value of Bitcoin since the beginning of the year, with $372 million in long positions in the perpetual market across all exchanges liquidated in just one day on January 22.
“Given the anonymous nature of the world’s most valuable digital asset, it is difficult to identify the individuals who possess the addresses in question,” the report said.
Bitcoin, like other digital cryptocurrencies, has dropped significantly to new lows, wiping out over $1 trillion from the global crypto market value.
The crypto crash occurred as the US Federal Reserve raised the possibility of raising interest rates as early as March and withdrawing market stimulus.