Bitcoin Adoption and Offline Storage on the Rise Despite Weak Market Conditions (Santiment)

The crypto research firm Santiment has identified network data indicating that Bitcoin adoption is rising despite the market’s weakened state.

Santiment’s findings revealed that not only is Bitcoin adoption rising, but cold storage is increasing as well. Investors are increasingly sending their bitcoins (BTC) to offline storage platforms, a pattern usually seen among users who intend to hold for the long term.

Bitcoin Adoption is Rising

According to Santiment’s tweet, the number of separate non-empty wallets on the Bitcoin network has climbed to an all-time high of 58.45 million. This metric witnessed a 1.69 million rise in six months, reflecting a 3% uptick. Such growth indicates that more investors have been buying and holding BTC over the last few months, regardless of the decline in prices and the widely-believed onset of the bear market.

In addition, the amount of BTC on known exchange wallets has plummeted to its lowest level since December 2017. Currently, such wallets hold only 1.17 million BTC.

The rising adoption and the move to offline storage reflect a “buy the dip” trend among investors. Both retail and institutional investors have been accumulating the digital asset; however, at an insignificant pace. It also appears institutional investors have been accumulating more than their retail counterparts.

Earlier this month, CryptoPotato reported that last week, U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded their first major accumulation wave since mid-October 2025, while retail flows declined. As ETF inflows totalled $1.45 billion on February 25, data shared by analysts showed a $5 billion contraction in retail inflows over the 30-day period from February 6 to March 2.

Genuine Accumulation Drives Spot Demand

Meanwhile, spot demand is also climbing amid war tensions. Despite geopolitical uncertainty shaking markets, unleveraged investors and institutions are still buying. A part of the demand can also be traced to U.S. investors, as seen in the Coinbase Premium, which flipped positive after a long negative streak.

Data from the derivatives market also shows that the demand is not driven by speculative activity stemming from leveraged trades, but by genuine accumulation. This spot demand has pushed BTC back above $70,000 for the first time in three weeks. At the time of writing, the leading crypto asset was trading around $70,560, down slightly over the past 24 hours.

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