Crypto whales refer to wallet addresses that hold over 1000 BTC, or large amounts of other cryptos. This can be an individual or an institutional investor. As a result of their large wallet, they can manipulate the market.
Whether we like them or not, they are a part of the crypto space. So, let’s have a closer look at the crypto whales.
What Are Crypto Whales?
As we already mentioned, crypto whales are wallets that hold large amounts of crypto. Because they hold such large amounts of crypto, they can influence the market.
It takes a bit before anybody will call you a crypto whale. In general, you will need to have around $10 million in a crypto wallet. Just to clarify, this can be any cryptocurrency. For example, BTC, ETH, ADA, DOT, DOGE, SOL, or SHIB. Anything counts, really, as long as you hit that $10 million mark.
JUST IN: $SAND @TheSandboxGame now on top 10 purchased tokens among 100 biggest #ETH whales in the last 24hrs 🐳
We've also got $LTO, #FTX Token, $WBX, $MATIC & $SRM on the list 👀
Whale leaderboard: https://t.co/N5qqsCAH8j#SAND #whalestats #babywhale #BBW pic.twitter.com/iopvxqZHFe
— WhaleStats (tracking crypto whales) (@WhaleStats) October 27, 2022
There is actually a classification table. For example,
- Shrimps hold less than 1 BTC.
- Crabs hold between 1 and 10 BTC.
- Octopus holds between 10 and 50 BTC.
- A fish holds between 50 and 100 BTC.
- Dolphins between 100 and 500 BTC.
- Sharks have between 500 and 1000 BTC.
- Whales, the biggest fish in the ocean, have a minimum of 1000 BTC.
- Humpbacks have more than 5000 BTC.
So, as you can see, there’s a whole hierarchy in place. However, these are rough guidelines. Each cryptocurrency has its own criteria.
🚨 19,999,986 #MATIC (18,741,956 USD) transferred from #Binance to unknown wallethttps://t.co/mmN2M1Bd2c
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) October 27, 2022
How Do Whales Affect Crypto?
We know already that whales hold large amounts of crypto. As a result, any movement between wallets can affect the market. Price fluctuations are common once whales start to move funds around.
There are also so-called ‘whale watchers’. They often tend to follow the whale’s behavior. For example, if a whale sells a big part of its portfolio, the watcher may follow suit. This will add pressure to the price. As a result, the price of this coin may drop even further.
However, this can also work the other way around. Elon Musk announced that Tesla would buy $1.5 billion BTC back in February 2022. This resulted in the BTC price going up by 17%.
Furthermore, they can also sell a large chunk of their holdings. This results in a price drop. Now they can buy their coins back at a cheaper price. Alternatively, they can hold on to the coins they just bought. This reduces the supply and the price increases. So, now they enjoy an increased value on the coins they just bought. The picture below shows popular small-cap tokens that whales currently buy.
Source: Twitter
What Crypto Are Whales Buying?
The two top coins that crypto whales buy are BTC and ETH. They also like to hoard stablecoins. For instance, USDC, USDT, or DAI. Currently, MATIC is hot among the whales. However, their standard portfolio includes, among others;
- stETH
- SHIB
- LOCUS
- MKR
- LINK
- BITDAO
- UNI
The picture below gives a good insight to what whales are holding. However, keep in mind that this can fluctuate.
Source: Twitter
The Biggest Crypto Whales
It’s difficult to know exactly who is a whale. The wallets are pseudonymous. In other words, there is no name connected to a wallet address. That’s why they sometimes receive nicknames, like BlueWhale0208. For example, Whalestats is a tracking service. They use this kind of nickname. There are other whale-watching accounts, like Whale Alert.
On the other hand, we also know a handful of whales. People that come to mind include.
- Nakamato Satoshi — It’s rumored that he holds over 1 million BTC.
- Michael Saylor — The CEO of Microstrategy.
- The Winklevoss twins — Owners of the Gemini exchange. Allegedly they hold over 70,000 BTC.
- Sam Bankman-Fried — Owner of the FTX exchange. His Alameda Research organization holds 2 billion in funds.
Supposedly 85 BTC wallets hold some 14% of the complete BTC supply. 2200 wallets hold 45% of all BTC. There’s one wallet that holds around 28% of all DOGE. This equals 36,711,943,063 DOGE. This info you can find on Bitinfocharts.
Conclusion
This is the end of Part 1 about crypto whales. We answered 4 popular questions about whales. So, for more information on crypto whales, take a look at our Part 2.
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