Bitcoin Active Addresses Hit a 20-Month High

Bitcoin's network activity closed July at levels it had not reached in almost two years. Daily active addresses climbed from about 645,000 on 30 July to somewhere between 978,000 and 980,000 on 31 July, the highest count since 10 December 2024, and stayed elevated through the weekend of 1 and 2 August. Total transfers came to 761,796 for the day. The unusual part was not the volume but the direction: coin was moving toward exchanges rather than off them, with the aggregate exchange balance rising over the same stretch. The activity is inseparable from the hardware wallet migration under way that weekend, as holders of affected Coldcard devices moved funds off seeds they could no longer trust.

What an active address counts, and what it does not

An active address is an address that appeared as either the sender or the receiver in a confirmed transaction that day. It counts addresses, not people and not wallets. One owner can control dozens of them, and a single wallet application typically generates a new receiving address for every payment. An exchange's hot wallet stands in for thousands of customers at once. A rise therefore measures how much of the network moved coin, not how many new participants arrived. Against that caveat the numbers are still striking. The 2026 range had run between 550,000 and 750,000, with a July daily average near 610,000, and daily transaction counts had already been running high through the summer. Sweep transactions alone ran at 13.8 per block, roughly 45 times the baseline rate.

39,600 BTC moved in transfers under one coin

The size distribution of the transfers says more than the headline count. Transfer volume in amounts below one bitcoin reached 39,600 BTC on 31 July, all but matching the 39,900 BTC that moved on 16 November 2022, the day the FTX exchange collapsed. Small transfers dominating a day's volume points to individual holders acting at the same time, not institutions rebalancing. Desks move size in fewer and larger transactions. The comparison with November 2022 is the one CoinDesk drew, and it cuts in the opposite direction: that episode was a run away from exchanges, while this one moved coin toward them. The trigger this time was defensive, not speculative, and the incident behind it is covered separately.

Why the direction reads as bearish

Deposits in amounts under 10 BTC spiked to 7,300 BTC on 31 July, the most since 6 February, and net inflows across Binance, River, Kraken and OKX totaled 11,163 BTC. The aggregate exchange balance rose from 2.703837 million BTC to 2.715 million over the same window. Rising exchange balances are usually read as bearish because coin sitting on an exchange can be sold immediately, without another on-chain step, so a growing balance is treated as supply moved closer to the order book. Falling balances are read the other way, as coin going into self-custody for longer holding. That reading assumes the deposits reflect an intention to sell, which is exactly what is unclear here. CoinDesk's own interpretation was migration off compromised seeds, with an exchange as a temporary holding place, at a point when on-chain data had already shown more of the supply sitting at a loss than in profit.

The parked coin is the test

If holders were using venues as a waypoint while they set up new hardware and new seeds, the balances should fall back as those transfers complete, and active addresses should revert toward the 610,000 level that defined July. If the balances hold or keep climbing, a share of what moved becomes genuine sell-side supply, and the distinction between migration and distribution stops mattering. The weekend tape offered little corroboration either way. Spot volumes were the thinnest since 2019, and we found no aggregate liquidation tally published for either weekend session, leaving the on-chain data to stand largely on its own.