Bitcoin continues to lead in terms of the longest average holding period. However, one crypto asset has outpaced major assets like Ethereum in this metric, highlighting its sustained appeal among long-term investors.
According to the latest data compiled by IntoTheBlock, Bitcoin leads with an “average HODL time” of 4.4 years. This aligns with its popular perception as a long-term store of value or “digital gold.”
Despite the world’s largest crypto asset’s failure to reclaim a crucial level and notch a fresh all-time high, both institutional and retail interest have spiked, though the latter has been slower.
Interestingly, standing close to the “digital gold” is Litecoin which is often referred to as the “silver to the Bitcoin’s gold.” With an average holding time of 2.6 years, Litecoin investors have one of the highest holding times amongst digital assets, second only to Bitcoin.
Another particularly fascinating observation is that Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Shiba Inu (SHIB) all share an identical average holding period of 2.4 years despite their very different use cases and market perceptions.
This suggests that meme tokens might be evolving beyond their initial reputation as purely speculative assets. Moving down IntoTheBlock’s list, Chainlink (LINK) and Toncoin (TON) are observed to have an average holding period of 1.9 years each, while Tron (TRX) and Cardano (ADA) sit at 1.2 years each.
The stablecoin Tether (USDT) and Avalanche (AVAX) show the shortest holding periods at 8.9 and 7.7 months, respectively, which makes sense given USDT’s primary use as a trading pair and medium of exchange rather than a long-term investment.
This article first appeared at CryptoPotato