Skip to content

← On-chain Bitcoin

Supply Age Breakdown

12-band hodl wave decomposition of BTC supply by UTXO age from under 1 day to over 10 years.

Tier performanceOn-chain Bitcoinsupplyhodl-wavesage-bandsutxo-agecohort-rotation

What is it?

The hodl-waves breakdown distributes total BTC supply across 12 UTXO-age bands: under 1 day, 1 day-1 week, 1 week-1 month, 1-3 months, 3-6 months, 6 months-1 year, 1-2 years, 2-3 years, 3-5 years, 5-7 years, 7-10 years, over 10 years. Bands sum to circulating supply.

How to read

The 12 bands stack vertically from most recent (bottom) to oldest (top). Recent-band expansion (0-3 months) indicates high on-chain activity typically associated with bull-run beginnings or mid-phases. Recent-band compression paired with old-band expansion (>1 year) indicates structural inactivity phases typical of late bear markets.

Key zones

Characteristic shapes include the tsunami wave (rapid propagation from recent band to old bands over several years) marking massive capitulation. The stable-wave shape indicates a structural accumulation regime sustained across several quarters.

What to observe

The old-versus-recent band ratio across equivalent phases of different cycles is the most informative structural indicator. Progressive supply maturation confirms market robustness.

Historical context

The 7-10 year band has seen spectacular structural growth post-2017 due to massive accumulation during Bitcoin's first decade. The over-10-year band grows mechanically year over year, integrating the Satoshi-era cohort. Recent bands (0-3 months) strongly oscillate between 10 and 25 percent across cycle phases.

Expert notes

The under-1-week bands require special attention: they include recent transactions that may be purely technical (UTXO consolidation, payment-change) and not economic. Their real-time oscillation is dominated by topological noise.

Common mistakes to avoid

Over-10-year band expansion does not reflect new accumulation: it reflects mechanical temporal maturation of old UTXOs. To measure real deep-value accumulation, compare the derivative of the 2-3 and 3-5 year bands which integrate recent economic flows.

Programmatic access

REST API

curl -sS \
  'https://api.trinityinsights.io/api/v1/onchain/supply-age-breakdown/history?days=90' \
  -H 'X-API-Key: $TRINITY_API_KEY'

MCP server

{
  "tool": "get_chart_value",
  "metric_id": "supply-age-breakdown",
  "timeframe": "1y"
}

Required tier: performance. See the pricing grid for the tier list and the MCP documentation for multi-client configuration.

Related metrics

Institutional disclaimer

Trinity Insights is an educational and analytical tool. The metric above does not constitute investment advice. Trinity Insights is not a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) registered under MiCA Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. See the full disclaimer.