Since the start of the year, the cryptocurrency market has lost over $1 trillion in value from its market cap due to the downward pressure exerted on it, resulting in a crisis that is engulfing the whole digital asset sector on a global scale.
As a direct consequence of this, holders of the flagship digital currency Bitcoin (BTC) have been exposed to the harsh effects of the market crash, as evidenced by the fact that the number of BTC millionaires decreased significantly by almost 70% in the first half of 2022.
Data acquired by Finbold indicates that as of June 29, 2022, the number of Bitcoin millionaires stood as or more, combining 30,626. In particular, addresses with a BTC balance of more than $1 million were 26,284, according to BitInfoCharts.com statistics.
Meanwhile, 4,342 of the addresses had a combined balance of approximately $10 million or more. However, when employing a web archive tool Wayback Machine, on January 5, 99,092 BTC addresses with more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin were reported, a decrease of 69.09% since the beginning of the year.
Bitcoin millionaires fall considerably
Since the beginning of January, the number of Bitcoin millionaires has fallen considerably, but the drop is more impressive if we take the date farther back to October 2021, when BTC was trading near its all-time high, the loss is more spectacular.
In point of fact, when 116,139 Bitcoin addresses were confirmed to be millionaires on October 28, 2021, that would show a decline of 73.62% between then and June 29, 2022.
The performance of the asset is continuing to be negatively impacted by a number of issues, some of which include increased regulatory scrutiny, volatile market conditions, geopolitical turmoil, rising inflation and rate hikes.
With such market uncertainty, more crypto traders are looking to short Bitcoin. As things stand, Bitcoin is currently trading at $20,037, down 4.68% in the last 24 hours and 1.66% over the previous week, with a total market worth of $382 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.