Dormancy

Average lifespan of spent coins in days — high dormancy means old coins are moving

Property	Value
Category	Coin Days
Unit	days
Resolution	1d
Assets	BTC
Tier	Pro
API Endpoint	GET /v1/coindays
Field	dormancy

Overview

Dormancy measures the average age (in days) of Bitcoin that was spent on-chain each day. It is computed by dividing Coin Days Destroyed by Transfer Volume — essentially asking: "of all the BTC that moved today, how old were they on average?"

A Dormancy of 100 means that, on average, each BTC spent today had been sitting unspent for 100 days. A Dormancy of 1,000 means very old coins are moving. Dormancy strips away the volume component of CDD and isolates the age signal — whether 100 BTC or 10,000 BTC moved is irrelevant; what matters is how old they were.

Formula

$$\text{Dormancy}_t = \frac{\text{CDD}_t}{\text{Transfer Volume}_t}$$

Where:

• $\text{CDD}_t$ is Coin Days Destroyed on day $t$
• $\text{Transfer Volume}_t$ is the total BTC spent on-chain on day $t$
• The result is in days — the average age of spent coins

Interpretation

• High Dormancy during price peaks: Old, long-held coins are being spent at high prices — classic smart money distribution at cycle tops
• Low Dormancy during price peaks: Mostly young coins moving — retail FOMO with short holding periods. Less bearish than high dormancy
• High Dormancy during crashes: Long-term holders capitulating — potential bottom signal if extreme enough
• Low Dormancy as baseline: In normal market conditions, most on-chain activity involves relatively young coins (days to weeks old)
• Dormancy spikes: Sudden jumps indicate whale activity or institutional rebalancing — single large old UTXOs being spent can cause dramatic spikes

Use Cases

• Smart money tracking: High dormancy = experienced holders (who accumulated long ago) are moving coins. The when they do this relative to price is the alpha signal
• Cycle top detection: Sustained elevated dormancy during a bull run indicates systematic distribution by long-term holders
• Capitulation confirmation: Extreme dormancy spikes during a crash mean even the most patient holders are selling — potential bottom
• Foundation for Dormancy Flow: Dormancy Flow normalizes Dormancy against its yearly average, creating a clean oscillator for regime detection

API Usage

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.blocklens.co/v1/coindays?start_date=2024-01-01&end_date=2024-12-31&limit=365"

Related Metrics

• Transfer Volume — Daily on-chain BTC transfer volume derived from UTXO spending activity
• Coin Days Destroyed — Sum of coin age × amount for all spent UTXOs per day — a fundamental measure of on-chain economic activity
• Dormancy Flow — Dormancy relative to its yearly average — above 1 means old coins moving more than usual