Ethereum holders are more willing than Bitcoin investors to part with coins: Glassnode

Bitcoin holders are still the real “diamond hands” that investors are compared to Ethereum According to a new report, these latest coins are being moved and spent far more than the original so-called digital gold.

Blockchain data company Glassnode said in a new report – citing data collected for this week’s crypto crash – that BTC moves less frequently than ETH and behaves more like a ‘digital savings asset’.

ETH moves much more because it functions as “digital oil,” which is both stored and actively used as network fuel and collateral.

“Bitcoin is behaving like the digital savings asset it was designed to be, in that coins are largely hoarded, turnover is low and recent behavior shows more supply migrating to long-term hold wrappers rather than sitting on exchanges,” the report said.

“Ethereum’s behavior also reflects the inherent properties of a smart contract platform with high transaction fees,” it added, “with a large anchored base of native staking, with the addition of recent market forces adding an investor component through ETFs.”

The report further notes why: Ethereum’s use in smart contracts, which contain the code that powers a wide range of decentralized applications, DeFi platforms and tokenized assets.

As Glassnode notes, “the long-term holders of ETH are mobilizing their old coins at a rate three times faster than the long-term holders of BTC, indicating that the long-term holders of ETH are more willing to part with their coins, indicating utility-driven behavior.”

Ethereum powers crypto applications ranging from stablecoins to decentralized financial exchanges. To conduct transactions that involve sending digital dollars or exchange tokens on a decentralized crypto exchange, users must pay gas fees in ETH.

It is because of the use cases of the Ethereum network that, despite the adoption of exchange-traded funds now traded on traditional exchanges, ETH still acts less as a store of value compared to BTC – and the coins are less inactive.

Yet ETH may still have use cases, Glassnode noted, explaining that “one in four ETH is tied up in native staking and ETFs.”

The price of Ethereum recently stood at nearly $3,208, down 4.5% in the past week. The coin slowly reached an all-time high, but finally did so in August, breaking a nearly four-year-old record. The price has remained well below that level ($4,946) in recent weeks.

Bitcoin recently traded at $95,992, down nearly 6% over the past seven days. The coin’s all-time high is $126,088, which was reached in October.