Nearly 4 million Bitcoin worth over $40 billion unmoved in five years

The number of "Untouched" Bitcoins increased significantly over the past five years, according to recent data from CoinMetrics.

Nearly 4 million BTC, an amount currently valued at around $40 billion, has not moved from wallets that may be holding the cryptocurrency as a store of value.

Matt Odell, a digital currency analyst and co-host of the Tales from the Crypt podcast, confirmed that the amount of bitcoin being held, for the last five years, in wallets has reached an all-time high.

"The amount of Bitcoin supply that has been untouched for at least five years recently reached an all-time high. This potentially signals that BTC is increasingly becoming a store of value, as opposed to a medium of exchange."https://t.

Odell believes the increasing number of Bitcoins held over five years indicates that BTC is increasingly being used as a store of value instead of as a medium of exchange.

One, the firm behind EOS' colossal $4 billion ICO, had reportedly been holding approximately 140,000 BTC, which is currently worth about $1.4 billion.

10 million Bitcoins haven't moved in the past year.

The number of Bitcoins that haven't moved in the past year is also at an all-time high, with over 10 million BTC being held by various entities.

Research published by digital forensics firm, Chainalysis, in November 2017 revealed that between 3.79 million to 2.78 million bitcoins may have been lost permanently.

After accounting for Bitcoins being held by Satoshi Nakamoto and long-term investors, the report concluded that up to 3.79 million BTC was likely lost due to mismanagement of private keys and seed phrases.