The number of Bitcoin addresses with one or more coins has gradually increased over the past year.

By mid-January, there were 784,000 addresses holding at least one Bitcoin, an increase of almost 11% from 707,000 a year ago, as per data from blockchain intelligence company, Glassnode. 

The figure has more than doubled since the beginning of 2015.

Connor Abendschein, crypto research analyst at Digital Assets Data in Denver stated: "The steady rise is the result of accumulation by retail buyers.”

The growth in addresses can also be derived from exchanges and major players, so-called ‘whales’. That said, these addresses tend to hold large balances and make the top end of Bitcoin’s ‘rich list’ – those holding the most Bitcoins, reports Coin Desk.

As an example, three of the top five on the rich list – published by bitinfocharts, belong to the Huobi, Bitfinex and Binance exchanges. Huobi’s cold wallet is in pole position with 255,502 BTC. 

Furthermore, the number of addresses holding between 0.1 BTC and 1 BTC have also increased by 10% year over year.

Abendschein went on to add: "The rising number of addresses accumulating greater amounts of BTC is a sign that adoption as a store of value is increasing.”

Bitcoin prices increased from $3,600 to $13,880 in the first six months of last year, before dropping to $6,430 in December. Nevertheless, the number of addresses with one or more Bitcoins increased by 77,000 in a year.

Yassine Elmandjra, crypto asset analyst at ARK Invest, told CoinDesk: “The growth in unique BTC addresses suggests a continued increase in BTC’s wealth distribution.”

As of last month, investors holding 1,000 to 1 million Bitcoins held 42.1% of the total supply, compared to 37.9% at the end of 2017.