What is the name of a person or institution holding a very large amount of any cryptocurrency in the blockchain world? Let’s say right away: Cryptocurrency whales. These individuals or institutions, which are holders of cryptocurrencies at such a high rate that they can affect market trends with their buying and selling movements, are known for being able to manipulate the market and when they come together, they can make extra high profits with this manipulation power.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The individuals or institutions, which are holders of cryptocurrencies at such a high rate that they can affect market trends with their buying and selling movements, are known as crypto whales.
- Today, it is known that about 3.07% of the total circulating Bitcoin belongs to a total of 3 wallet addresses. This rate is similar in altcoins such as Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Cardano.
- Whales aim to increase their real profits by manipulating the market by providing sudden increases and decreases in the value of crypto money. It is possible for them to adopt more than one transaction method to do this.
- The fact that Blockchain has a transparent and inter-ledger technology allows potential whale actions to be detected. But for this, it may be a good idea to be careful enough and use certain tools.
CRYPTOSHIFT EXPLAINS Imagine 3 to 4 whales who suddenly sell their Bitcoin at a very high rate, significantly lowering the price of the cryptocurrency. Small investors, who are faced with the danger of losing their savings, which are important to them, are in a hurry to sell their assets in the suddenly moving market. As sales increase, Bitcoin's value drops further. When it comes to a certain point, the whales re-buy the Bitcoins they sell at the high value, at the low point. The scenario is pretty clear: Whales have extorted Bitcoins from small and medium investors by manipulating the market. This is the power of market manipulation itself.
So, why are these users who hold a high rate of currency called “whale”? In fact, the answer is quite simple: the trading movements of these users in the financial world significantly change the general appearance of the water and can cause other small fish (small investors) to place anxiously snapped orders in a dangerous ecosystem.
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Facts About Crypto Whales – Understanding Their Power
Do you know what the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule means? This rule clearly states:
When examining any financial, social, or sociopolitical situation, if you look carefully enough, about 80 percent of the results are explained by 20 percent of the causes.
What does this mean for crypto whales?
The fact of the matter is that 80 percent of the effects that create market values and volume movements in the market are made by crypto whales, who make up only 20 percent of the entire market. In other words, about 80 percent of Bitcoins in the US, for example, are owned by a top group that makes up only 20 percent of total Bitcoin users.
If that’s clear enough, let’s talk real numbers, not theory.
- BitInfoCharts has put the amount of Bitcoin in circulation in the second quarter of 2021 under scrutiny. The research revealed that 3.07% of all circulating Bitcoin belongs to only three cryptocurrency wallets. This meant exactly 27.8 billion dollars.
- It gets more and more surprising as the statistics go on. Because the top 100 wallets that store the most Bitcoin have about 18 percent of all Bitcoin in circulation. Just 100 wallets and almost a fifth of all currency. Can you imagine?
A study done on the Bitcoin market survey reveals that about 40 percent of all Bitcoin in circulation is held in 2500 wallets. There are more than 100 million wallets active in the world of cryptocurrencies, and almost half of all cryptocurrencies are 2500 among them. This 40 percent asset corresponds to approximately 240 million dollars.
So, how much of a particular currency do you own, and do you become a “crypto whale”?
Well, there is no clear demarcation line for this. Some say that when it comes to Bitcoin, for example, the fact that investors have at least 1000 BTC makes them whales. The main issue here is to have the power to create fluctuations in the market with trading movements.
How Do Whales Manipulate Crypto?
We generally understood that whales have the power to generate income by manipulating the market. But how do they do it? Explore step by step and understand the logic of this business.
Tactic 1
What the whales do to manipulate the market is simple.
They place large sell orders at points much lower than the current market values. This, in turn, causes a sudden drop in the value of the respective cryptocurrency.
This decrease, which worries traders and investors who want to make a profit from the relevant cryptocurrency in the short term or follow their investments, which means a significant amount for them, causes a selling trend in the market. Realized and unstoppable sales mean a further drop in price. Crypto whales buy them back at a low value and the value of the cryptocurrency rises again.
Wauw, what an intrigue, isn’t it?
Tactic 2
The second tactic is what is often called the opposite of the wall by whales. In order to make enough profit with this tactic, whales artificially inflate the value of the cryptocurrency they have determined, like a balloon. The thing that enables this to be done is that they place purchase orders at much higher points of the currency’s value.
So what does this cause? Bidders are forced to raise their bids because of these orders.
Basically, all tactics are about whales manipulating other investors’ ideas about the cryptocurrency’s value trajectory. Investors may be given the impression that the relevant asset promises more potential than it actually is, or that it will drop in a very short time and destroy their investments. In this way, the intended market mobility is realized.
How to Interpret Market Movements and Understand Whales?
There’s no clear way to tell if a move was fueled by currency’s whales. What is done can be a whale movement, or it can be the normal flow of the market itself. But when you see sharp and sudden changes, you are usually watching whale movement.
- Understanding Large Aggressive Sells & Buys
When viewing a chart, periods of high relative trade size should be periods of potential whales for you. These periods are shaped by two basic concepts: large aggressive sales and large aggressive buys. The whales come together and decide in which direction to move the relevant cryptocurrency and quickly make their transactions.
Fast sales make the Tactic 1 we just described a reality. Other traders start selling their cryptocurrencies with fear of losing their money. Whales, on the other hand, quickly re-buy large aggressively from the falling level. In the cryptocurrency that has risen to a certain level again, purchases continue until it reaches the old level.
- Understanding Large Aggressive Buys, Right Before Sells
The process we mentioned above as Tactic 2 may look like the chart below. In this chart, first of all, purchase orders were placed much higher than the actual value of the crypto money and the purchase was made. This artificial rise in the price of Currency caused other traders to make purchases with the fear of “I should not miss the train”. Then the whales sell their cryptocurrencies slightly above the level they bought and close the day with a profit. The graph with whales returns to its lowest level again. In this case, medium and small-scale investors experience serious losses.
- Understanding The Start of Whale Action
When examining the board on any stock exchange platform and deciding whether the chart is whale action or not, look for the following: there should be a sudden change in value on the chart followed by a reverse value change. For example, a sudden decrease and then a big increase that can almost reach the old levels can be a good example of this. You can see an example of this in the chart below.
The Case of Elon Musk: Understanding Crypto Whales
Elon Musk is one of the first names that come to mind when it comes to manipulation in the crypto money world. While it’s debatable whether he’s a whale or not, his power to influence the market is really high. Musk is thought to be a Dogecoin whale. Because he bought Dogecoin on February 6, 2019, for $0.0018. The account that made this purchase is known to have 28 percent of the total Dogecoin supply in 2021, that is, currently. An incredible rate.
Elon Musk shared several tweets on Twitter on May 25, asking for ideas for improving Doge on GitHub or Reddit. Such tweets caused the price of both Doge and Bitcoin to rise suddenly and quickly.
How Do Whales Transact: Explore The Most Popular Whale Methods to Trade!
A series of apps or alerts that allow you to track whale-trading focuses on their trading methods. If there is the mobility of wallets in an ecosystem, they may be using one or more of the following methods:
| Over the Counter (OTC) Trading | OTC, also called off-exchange trading, means that the buyer and seller create contracts for a future cryptocurrency exchange. Usually, Huobi, Binance, or other blockchain-based platforms serving decentralized finance do this with their customers who hold a high percentage of cryptocurrencies. Platforms that engage in a kind of “investment banking” with off-exchange trading to their customers never disclose the names or addresses of the participants. |
| Wallet to Exchange Trading | The transfers that whales will make from their personal wallets to their exchange accounts constitute a large part of their transaction patterns. If a whale transfers its hot or cold wallet to the exchange, this will most likely result in a buy or sell order. Therefore, there are many Whale Alert accounts that provide regular monitoring of whales that share their wallets transparently. A large amount of money entering the stock market changes the balance of the market by creating buying or selling pressure for other traders. |
| Wallet to Wallet Trading | When whales want to exchange money among themselves, they send money between wallets. If an alert is not given from accounts that know the wallet IDs of the wallets, other users may not notice these large transfers. If these transfers are noticed, preliminary information about a fluctuation in the market can be obtained in the near future. |
| Exchange to Wallet Trading | Whales, who keep their money on an exchange platform and withdraw their money to their cold wallet, give an important message to the market: ”I will hold this cryptocurrency and I will not sell it”. This behavior, which causes a decrease in liquidity from the exchange platform, usually stimulates the demand for the relevant cryptocurrency and prices to increase in the short term. |
| Exchange to Exchange Trading | Whales, who generally want to make a profit through arbitrage, can provide significant income when performed in large numbers. If you are a small investor, arbitrage is not worth it. But when it comes to millions, it may be worth it. |
What are Whale Tracking Tools?
Certain tools that allow you to be instantly aware of the behavior of whales can greatly facilitate your work. What allows Whales’ behavior to be tracked is that all transactions take place in a completely transparent manner within Blockchain technology and each node must approve the transaction that will create a block. This means that every transaction can be viewed by every single node of the Blockchain.
As long as you know the wallet ID, you can monitor all the behavior of a whale. You can even selectively share all transactions that take place in the Blockchain ecosystem, which means very high volume mobility. Who they belong to, that is, the identity information of the wallet owners can only be known if the wallet owners share them. But you don’t need the identity information of the wallet owner to decide that there is a “whale action”!
Whale Alert
Meet a Twitter account followed by almost all crypto traders and investors: Whale Alert! This account is an account that shares high-volume transactions on major Blockchain networks with the amount details and the name of the exchange platform transferred. By following this account it is possible to gain insight into potential whale actions. Plus it’s completely free!
Using Blockchain Explorers
You can keep an eye on the activity happening on the network by regularly following the blockchain explorers. Here the “latest blocks” section allows you to view the last block added to the network in real-time. This is an extremely good way to gain insight into any potential whale action.
Besides, Block List pages can also give you information about block height. This is important information for you to understand the block’s position on the entire chain. You also get key information such as average transaction fee, block size or profit.
Okex offers the Blockchain Explorer tool for free.
Whale Sniper Telegram Group
You know how popular Telegram is for communication and community building in the cryptocurrency world. Whale Sniper is also a popular group with over 80,000 members that regularly provides alerts about whale action. You can be informed by joining the group free of charge.
Major Altcoins That Are Owned by Crypto Whales – With Owned Percentages
It would be a big mistake to think of only Bitcoin when whales are mentioned in the crypto money world, because contrary to popular belief, the purchase of altcoins that have been released more recently is more intense and the number of whales may increase.
| Ethereum (ETH) | About 39 percent of the circulating supply is owned by only 151 addresses |
| Litecoin (LTC): | About 47 percent of the circulating supply is owned by only 131 addresses |
| Tether (USDT): | About 63 percent of the circulating supply is owned by only 132 addresses |
| Bitcoin Cash (BCH): | About 29 percent of the circulating supply is owned by only 112 addresses |
| Bitcoin SV (BSV): | About 24 percent of the circulating supply is owned by only 103 addresses |
| Cardano (ADA): | About 39 percent of the circulating supply is owned by only 41 addresses |
Who Are The Most Popular Bitcoin Whales? – Examples of Crypto Whales
Among the most popular whales in the cryptocurrency world are The Winklevoss twins, Matthew Roszak, Tim Draper, and Michael Saylor.
Not all of the cryptocurrency whales have been named. After all, there isn’t a list of “the richest people in the world” like the decentralized world, is there? To see how much Bitcoin a user has, it is necessary to know his wallet code. Some users are sharing it personally in order to transparently disclose their existence. Of course, it’s unlikely to know how many wallets they have and whether they have more assets that they haven’t disclosed.
The Winklevoss Twins
The Twins said in a statement to Winklevoss Capital in April 2013 that they have exactly 11 million dollars in Bitcoin. It is noteworthy that the Winklevoss Twins, who started the process of creating their investments very early, said that they bought some coins in the early periods of Bitcoin for as little as 10 dollars. These two think they own about 1 percent of the total Bitcoin in circulation. The duo, who made Bitcoin investments in 2012 and 2013, announced that they were involved in a project called BitInstant 2013 that served as a Bitcoin exchange. Then they launch Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange platform that is now used worldwide.
The Twins’ investments and their Bitcoin would not be sold even during the price fluctuations that took place in 2017. This made their investment even more valuable. Finally, Gemini’s acquisition of Nifty Gateway and the crypto money credit cards that BlockFi and Gemini are planning to jointly launch have changed the color of the market.
Matthew Roszak
It is known that investor Roszak, who early realized that cryptocurrencies are promising, made his first Bitcoin purchase in 2012. Roszak, who is known as the founding partner of Bloq, a software company that produces blockchain technologies, started this adventure in 2015. The documentary “The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin”, shot by Roszak, who is interested in this field not only in terms of investment but also intellectually, about Bitcoin and the world of crypto money, is very popular.
Roszak, who continues to work actively in the sector today, is also on the board of BitGive. BitGive, on the other hand, is a company that aims to transform decentralized technologies developed using Blockchain technology into accessible opportunities through nonprofit partners.
Tim Draper
Known as another of the early birds, Tim Draper has bought $250,000 worth of Bitcoin when Bitcoin was only $6. This indicates that he has a really strong presence. Mt. Although he lost his first Bitcoin with a hacking event on a Bitcoin exchange called Gox, Draper did not stop enjoying the blessings of the Blockchain world. Reaching its place in the Blockchain world by benefiting from the story of Silk Road, known as the online black market and the first modern darknet market, Draper is thought to have approximately $1.1 billion in crypto money. Draper bought most of his assets between 2014 and 2015 during auctions held in connection with Silk Road.
Michael Saylor
Michael Saylor is an investor who is the founder and director of MicroStrategy. According to the most recent statements, Michael Saylor has 17,732 BTC. According to Saylor’s own statements on Twitter, the investor bought each Bitcoin at approximately $9,771. Considering that Bitcoin had already surpassed $60,000 at the time of this writing, this is an incredible profit.
Saylor, which does not only hold Bitcoin, but also continues to make new purchases, purchased another 1 billion dollars of Bitcoin in 2020. Saylor is an investor who actively shares his ideas on Twitter and many other platforms, often giving the message “keep holding!” to Bitcoin holders.
Satoshi Nakamoto
Get ready to meet the biggest mystery of the crypto money world. Satoshi Nakamoto is known as the inventor of Bitcoin. In the market, people who are known as the real Nakamoto can create chaos in certain periods. Austrian businessman Craig Wright is one of the investors that has created various doubts that he is the real Satoshi. Statements made in 2019 claim Weight is a 1.1 million Bitcoin property. If this is real, Wright is one of the Bitcoin whales.
Barry Silbert
Barry Silbert, the owner of CoinDesk, one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, is one of the famous whales. Silbert’s crypto assets are thought to be around 48,000 Bitcoins. Silbert continues to increase its assets day by day as it is personally involved in the development and establishment of cryptocurrency-focused companies. He is also an investor in more than 75 crypto-related companies.
What About Elon Musk?
A single change or a single tweet Elon Musk made in his Twitter bio reshapes all the expectations of the cryptocurrency exchange, causing investment movements to change. But is it because Elon Musk is popular or because he’s a whale?
It’s impossible to say for sure. Some think that Elon Musk is a Dogecoin whale, while others think he is a bull holding only $5 billion worth of Bitcoin. Elon Musk, on the other hand, continues to cause curiosity to grow with his contradictory statements made at certain times. Traders, on the other hand, do not like Elon Musk, who creates short-term movements in the market with a single explanation.
How to use Whale Alert for trading Bitcoin?
Stay up to date with the latest high-volume transactions on the Bitcoin network by following the Whale Alert account on Twitter. In this way, you can develop insight into a potential whale action.
How do Bitcoin whales make a profit?
Influencing the buying behavior of other traders in the market with various price change manipulations, crypto whales can earn profits by buying and selling at points that are profitable for them.
How many Bitcoins do Bitcoin whales have?
According to recent research, it is said that the number of wallets holding 14.15 percent of Bitcoin’s total supply is only 82 addresses.
Who owns Bitcoin?
Today, we only know that the three base Bitcoin addresses contain a total of 576,979 BTC. The next popular 79 wallets have exactly 2,046,879 BTC. These 82 addresses represent the investors who own the most Bitcoin in the world.
How can I get notified when a whale buys or sells Bitcoin?
You can manually follow the order books offered by certain platforms or follow Twitter profiles such as Whale Alert.
Where do crypto whales store their crypto?
Where crypto whales hold their cryptocurrencies can vary from period to period. They can keep their assets in cold wallets as well as in hot wallets or exchanges. And they can either circulate them or keep them out of the transaction.
How dangerous are whales to the Bitcoin idea?
If the number of cryptocurrencies owned by crypto whales increases, a market monopoly could occur. This realization may mean that certain names and institutionalized companies dominate the entire market. This may lead to the development of a market practice contrary to the decentralized philosophy of the Blockchain world.
