1/ We've all seen the massive amount of BTC being drained from exchange balances, but I've been somewhat skeptical that $GBTC could be sucking up exchange balances (not HODLers adding BTC into cold storage).

Here's a short thread of my research on this topic.

2/ The total Exchange Balance peaked roughly February 14th (around the same time the price peaked).

Price $10,300
Exchange Balance 2.95M BTC
GBTC AUM $2.97B
GBTC Holdings 288,000 BTC

3/ Today, December 11th, the data is...

Price $18,000
Exchange Balance 2.3M BTC
GBTC AUM $10B
GBTC Holdings 553,000 BTC

4/ 650,000 BTC were removed off of exchanges since Feb 14th, 2020.

GBTC added 265,000 BTC since Feb 14th, 2020.

It is possible that a large portion of those BTC were pulled off of exchanges and added to GBTC (funds arbing the premium).

5/ This research indicates that even if ALL the newly added coins to GBTC came directly from exchanges, there is still a very significant amount of coins being moved off exchanges into cold storage (minimum of 385,000 BTC).

This is still extremely bullish for #Bitcoin .

6/ I would love to hear from @glassnode about whether GBTC holdings are included in "Exchange Balances" as GBTC does have Coinbase Custody Trust Company as their custodian.

7/ If Glassnode does include GBTC holdings in their Exchange Balances, then it would be scary bullish.

If they don't, then I'm still highly bullish.

8/ Thanks to @MimesisCapital for helping provide the resources to allow me to take the time to perform this research.

9/ Update: Thanks to @n3ocortex's quick reply, we have confirmed that $GBTC holdings are NOT included in "Exchange Balances". https://twitter.com/n3ocortex/status/1337430745984495616?s=20