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BTC Exchanges reserve falls back to 2019 !
Since 2022, BTC reserves held on exchanges have been steadily declining, a trend largely triggered by the collapse of FTX. In November 2022 alone, more than 325,000 BTC disappeared from exchange reserves. Today, exchange reserves have returned to levels last seen in 2019, around 2.7 million BTC, with roughly 20% held by Binance alone among all centralized exchanges accessible to retail investors. If we also include platforms primarily used by professional investors, Coinbase Advanced comes first with around 800,000 BTC held. This is still about 200,000 BTC less than in July 2025. Beyond the FTX episode, which pushed many investors to keep their assets in private wallets rather than on centralized exchanges, two other major factors have contributed to bringing reserves back to levels comparable to 2019. The first major factor was the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024. At that time, BTC reserves on exchanges were still above 3.2M. Today, ETFs hold around 1.3M BTC, representing roughly 6.7% of the total supply, effectively removing this amount from exchange liquidity. The second factor, is the rise of Digital Asset Treasuries, or treasury companies. These firms have chosen to hold BTC as a reserve asset and now collectively own around 1.1M BTC, nearly 5% of the total supply. These BTC holdings by ETFs and companies give Bitcoin a different dimension. In both cases, BTC is increasingly used as a financial instrument. These forms of exposure are also different in nature and tend to be more professional or institutional. The decline in exchange reserves therefore reflects a structural shift in how Bitcoin is held. An increasing share of the supply is now locked within financial or corporate structures, gradually reducing the amount of BTC actually available on the market. Over the long term, this transformation could play an important role in market liquidity and price formation, even if these structural effects always take time to fully materialize.