According to onchain data from IntoTheBlock, the ratio of active Bitcoin addresses has plummeted to its lowest level since November 2010. In June, the weekly active wallet ratio dropped to a low of 1.22% while peaking at 1.32%. The month's highest ratio was last seen in November 2010.

Multi-Year Lows in Active Wallets

Additionally, the total number of active wallets has reached multi-year lows. The week of May 27 recorded 614,770 active wallets, the lowest figure since December 2018.

A declining active address ratio indicates a lack of buying and selling activity among holders, suggesting a phase of market consolidation.

Institutional vs Retail Participation

Juan Pellicer, a senior researcher at IntoTheBlock, attributes Bitcoin's (BTC) decreasing wallet activity rate to weaker retail participation than in past cycles.

"Institutional capital instead of retail investors drove this year's run to a new all-time high," Pellicer told Cointelegraph. "The wider economic situation could have played a role in retail not making as many crypto investments as they've done in the past."

Whale Movements and Government Sales

The drop in activity rate comes as investors brace for rising whale movements. The Mt. Gox trustee plans to start distributing payments to creditors in July.

Some more oversized holders, including those linked to governments, were also spotted partaking in selling activities. "Due to this concentration, much of the bearish trading activity is being performed off-chain, which doesn't significantly impact onchain address activity statistics," Pellicer adds.

Are Runes Struggling?

The drop in activity could appear counterintuitive to the launch of Runes, a fungible token protocol introduced to the Bitcoin ecosystem in tandem with the latest halving event in April.

Runes were expected to provide an alternative revenue channel for miners, which it did on the first day, as miners pocketed record-high trading fees on the halving day.

However, transaction fees have since normalized to pre-halving levels, and miner reserves, which represent the new Bitcoin held by miners, are also at 14-year lows.

Pellicer told Cointelegraph that activity on Runes has cooled off. However, due to the cyclical nature of such assets, their current state represents a temporary lull rather than a permanent decline.

Meanwhile, recent attention to crypto has focused on memecoins and celebrity tokens, attracting speculators who are gambling on more significant gains. Though Bitcoin is widely known for its volatility, its current state can be considered stable compared to lower-cap memecoins.