Who is the Crypto Whale? Explained

In the world of investment, nothing else quite compares to the bitcoin market’s brand-new asset class. The fact that users may explore the holdings of digital wallets on the public blockchain is one of the most distinctive features of blockchain technology. This means that internet-connected crypto wallets reveal exactly how much of each currency is being kept. Because of this, anybody may get a glimpse into the cryptocurrency holdings of even the wealthiest crypto investors, which has given rise to the phenomena known as “whale watching.”

However, what exactly is a cryptocurrency whale? How exactly do they influence cryptocurrency markets?

The specifics, such as what exactly constitutes a “whale,” where these investors may be found in the wild, and how the movement of their assets might generate ripples in the ocean of crypto investors, are discussed in the next section of this article.

Who exactly is Crypto Whale

A person, institution, or blockchain wallet that possesses an exceptionally big quantity of cryptocurrency is referred to as a crypto whale. In general, in order to be referred to be a crypto whale, you will need to hold around 10% equivalent in any variety of cryptocurrency, including BTC, ETH, SOL, ADA, DOT, AVAX, SHIB, DOGE, USDT, and USDC. These cryptocurrencies are all eligible for consideration.

However, depending on the cryptocurrency, there are many different thresholds to determine whether or not a user may be considered a whale. In spite of this, a crypto whale is often an extremely wealthy individual or entity that transacts in significant amounts of cryptocurrencies. Therefore, a typical person cannot become a crypto whale.

For instance, a classification table was devised in order to determine how to classify the whales in comparison to the other animals. A shrimp is someone who has less than 1 Bitcoin (BTC), a crab is someone who has between 1 and 10 BTC, an octopus is someone who has between 10 and 50 BTC, a fish is someone who has between 50 and 100 BTC, a dolphin is someone who has between 100 and 500 BTC, a shark is someone who has between 500 and 1000 BTC, a whale is someone who has more than 1000 BTC

Additionally, due to the fact that cryptocurrencies were intended to have higher levels of anonymity than traditional currencies, it is impossible to immediately link accounts to particular individuals or organizations. Therefore, as a result of this, it is difficult to tell exactly who each whale is, where they are situated, what job they have, what institution they belong to, who their network is, and what the reason is for them making this transaction. However, if you look at the blockchain data of users who have made their public addresses public, you may in fact identify at least some of the people who hold considerable quantities of different cryptocurrencies. This is because blockchain data is public information. In point of fact, some of these whales are quite well-known in the Bitcoin community.

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The impact of whales on the cryptocurrency market

In a sea of cryptocurrency speculators, large accounts are referred to as “whales.” They have the power to create waves for other, smaller fish since they are the largest organisms in the water. Crypto whales have the following effects on the cryptocurrency markets:

Liquidity

A cryptocurrency’s total liquidity is reduced when a group of whales retain a large amount of that currency in their wallets, thus taking those coins off the market.

As more investors compete for fewer coins that are still available, this might lead to higher prices during periods of increased demand. If a whale decides to flood the market by selling off a lot of coins, this might potentially have a detrimental impact on the value of a currency.

Price Fluctuations

There might not be enough liquidity in the current markets when a whale tries to sell a sizable chunk of their holdings, which would cause the price to fall sharply.

To avoid crashing the price of a particular cryptocurrency, major transactions like these are often made through over-the-counter (OTC) trade desks with significant cryptocurrency exchanges.

However, when a whale just transfers cryptocurrency from their wallet to an exchange or vice versa, from an exchange onto their wallet, values can also shift considerably.

When a whale transfers cryptocurrency from their wallet to an exchange (also known as exchange inflows), it may seem as though they are getting ready to sell their holdings for fiat money or another cryptocurrency, which might have a negative effect on the market.

On the other hand, exchange outflows, which occur when a whale transfers a sizable quantity of cryptocurrency from an exchange to their wallet, can be interpreted as a positive indication for that cryptocurrency and encourage further investors to join the bandwagon.

Overall, a cryptocurrency’s price may be significantly impacted by the transfer of coins to and from a crypto whale’s wallet.

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The Biggest Crypto Whales: Who Are They?

CEOs, owners, and founders of numerous cryptocurrency projects and companies with a cryptocurrency-related focus are some of the top crypto whales that people follow. These people include MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, Bitcoin billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong, the Winklevoss Twins of Facebook fame, and proprietors of the Gemini exchange, Justin Sun, as well as others (owner of Tron blockchain).

These whales are often more difficult to trace because they don’t normally disclose their wallet addresses and divide up their holdings. But Justin Sun frequently conducts transactions in the millions of dollars and has over $300 million stored in his Ethereum wallet alone.