news hardware Bitcoin: Are the Whales Still in the Game?
There is a food chain in crypto: the queens of the industry are the whales. With a large amount of cryptocurrency, these “whales” play a key role in the crypto space. Often invisible, what are the whales doing a few months after Bitcoin’s fall?
summary
- What is a whale in crypto?
- Whales in few figures
- The importance of whales for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
- Whales during the bear market
- Whales share the reef
What is a whale in crypto?
Whales are part of the legend of cryptocurrencies. Specifically, a whale is defined by a wallet containing a cryptocurrency in immense proportion. For example, the company Tesla, with its thousands of bitcoins, is still a whale even after the recent sale.
Several hundred, even thousands, of bitcoins or other currencies are usually necessary to enter the closed circle of whales. It all depends, first of all, on the value of the cryptocurrency and its “stock” (amount in circulation). While getting 1,000,000 in Shib is very easy, getting the same amount in Bitcoin or Ethereum becomes significantly more difficult, if not impossible.
The bitcoin threshold required to get you on the side of the whales is constantly changing depending on the price of the cryptocurrency. As a result, with the significant increase in its price, Bitcoin is less available in abundance. While it cost 6 dollars to hold around 100 bitcoins in 2010, today it is 2,000,000 dollars.
Because of this, there are few wallets that qualify as whales in any cryptocurrency, and even more in the most popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum.
Whales in few figures
Whales alone hold massive amounts of crypto. In the case of Bitcoin, around 85 wallets are known to hold 15% of the total amount of BTC in circulation. Looking at a broader range, nearly 2,200 wallets hold 8 million BTC, or 42% of the BTC in circulation. At current prices, these 2,200 addresses have assets of 185,000,000 billion dollars.
If this is a concern, it is important to note that Bitcoin or even Ethereum are among the least risky assets in this regard. In fact, DOGE, Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, enjoys a sizeable monopoly… 15 wallets hold about 50% of the tokens. If these whales started selling their entire wallets at once, it would mean the end of DOGE.
Doge – CoinCarp breakdown
The importance of whales for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
By holding so many cryptocurrencies in a single wallet, these whales play a key role in the crypto industry. When a whale completes a buy or sell transaction, it immediately affects the price of the asset. Cryptocurrencies are subject to the law of supply and demand. So if a large quantity is sold, the price will go down and vice versa if it is a purchase. Bitcoin investors have repeatedly paid the price.
Whale movements have a significant impact on the rise or fall of prices and are often observed. Most investors see them as signals to buy or sell the cryptos in their portfolios. Some Twitter accounts even go so far as to forward every transaction.
Therefore, although bitcoin allows its owners to remain anonymous, some addresses have been known to move since the beginning of the decline.
Whales during the bear market
Some whales were particularly involved in BTC’s June 2022 fall in value. The price of Bitcoin fell from $28,000 to $18,000 in just a few days. These sharp declines could indicate that one or more whales have sent sell orders for their bitcoin.
Since bitcoin has stagnated around $20,000, whales seem to be giving away their BTC. And that’s not new… Since 2020, the trend shows that the offer of these famous addresses is decreasing. According to Glassnode, whales holding more than 1,000 BTC lose some of it over time, unlike individuals who appear to be hoarding. In fact, addresses with 0.001 BTC and 1 BTC have tended to buy cryptocurrency over the past two years.
Whales share the reef
The further we progress in the development of these virtual currencies, the less power the whales have. For some time, whales have had to share territory with other crustaceans and other mammals.
In the absence of scrutiny and regulation, the crypto market has to deal with the rules of the whales. Although the whales share shore with others, they continue to steer, as demonstrated by the recent decline. Only the “fish” don’t seem to follow the trend of the whales…. If trends stay the same, Bitcoin could see a fairer distribution of its coins. Right now it’s time for volatility and not to displease some people. So if whale buying happens, the price of bitcoin could surge again.
Table of Contents
