What Does It Mean To Be a Crypto Whale?

Crypto whales are people or organizations that hold large amounts of cryptocurrencies or related digital assets. Crypto whales usually own more than 1,000 BTC. These individuals or organizations store their assets in a single address or wallet.

For a long time, crypto whales have attracted anticipation and anxiety from some crypto holders. Over the past few months, crypto whales’ number has risen due to increased crypto trading. Many people focus too much on the factors that influence cryptos when investing and forget to learn about whales. Read on to gather more knowledge about crypto whales and how they ‘rule’ the Crypto world.

Who Are Crypto Whales?

Only a few people cared to know what Cryptocurrencies were in their early days of operation. Below are some of the crypto whales in the world today.

Satoshi Nakamoto

Satoshi is the name of the creator(s) of Bitcoin. He appeared shortly during the launch of Bitcoin and disappeared as fast as he had appeared in the last decade. Therefore, it is not a surprise that he owns about 1.1 million Bitcoin.

Roger Ver

Roger is a well-known businessman and bitcoin promoter. He moved to collect this coin during its early days at a low price of $1. Now he has amassed more than 400,000 BTC.

Vitalik Buterin

Vitalik is the creator of ETH, the most dominant Altcoin. He owns approximately 60,000 BTC. he also owns about 355,000 ETH and many other Altcoins like Doge, of which he holds more than 3.5 tokens. That makes him one of the most influential crypto whales of our time.

Tim Draper

After the infamous 2014 saga of the Silk Road illegal Bitcoin exchanges, Tim bought over 29,000 BTC confiscated by the FBI. At the time, he bought them at $ 632 per coin.

Michael J Saylor

Michael is the CEO of MicroStrategy. According to Forbes, his company holds over 90,000 BTC. For that matter, he qualifies as one of the major crypto whales in the BTC market. The company invested in Bitcoin since it is the most widely adopted crypto.

What Can Make One A Crypto Whale?

Crypto whales are individuals or organizations that hold an insanely large amount of given crypto. There is somewhat a specific amount of crypto that one should own to be called a Crypto Whale. Comprehensively, about 1000 BTC is the level to hit to be one of the primary crypto holders.

To become one of the primary crypto holders, you need to look at one of the leading exchanges and choose a crypto of your own liking. Look at its latest trend and research on its latest news too. After identifying good crypto, you should then consider a good crypto wallet like Trust wallet. Finalize the process by placing a buy order worth more than 1000 BTC in the exchange of your choice.

Related: Does The US Government Own More Bitcoins Than Any Other BTC Holder?

How Do Crypto Whales Impact the Crypto Markets?

Crypto whale transactions have significant impacts on the crypto market capitalization and prices. Although they rarely get involved in crypto activities, their influence can cause noticeable shifts in the market since their transactions involve large sums of money. How crypto whales can manipulate crypto markets include:

Selling or Buying Large Amounts of Cryptos

Large pump and dump from crypto whales cause massive shifts in the price of cryptos. When one places a large buy order, the demand and the cost of the involved crypto rises instantly. Large sell orders cause sharp drops in the price of the crypto.

Forced Liquidation of Crypto Assets

To benefit, whales tend to open opposite positions of overleveraged markets. Then they can pump and dump as they see fit. The crypto whales make profits at the expense of smaller traders.

Arbitrage

Whales deceive the smaller traders by posting large trades on popular exchanges and smaller ones on less popular platforms. They use this trick to hide their actual flow of transactions. Even though this tactic is legal, it causes volume inflation.

How Track Crypto Whale Transactions

There are many methods that you can use to track the transactions done by crypto whales. These methods include On-chain analysis, using crypto whale tracking tools, and using paid on-chain data analysis platform.

On-chain analysis

The online analysis method involves analyzing the main types of transactions that are possible in the crypto exchange. These types of transactions include:

Wallet to exchange transactions

When crypto whales move money from their wallets to exchanges, you should be ready for a sale on a short or mid-term basis. A large BTC deposit to exchange platforms shows that the whale may consider selling, while a deposit of Stablecoins like tether may imply a possible purchase.

Exchange to wallet transactions

Whales prefer using cold wallets for the long-term storage of cryptos. Whenever crypto whales move their crypto holdings into their wallet, it implies that they have long-term plans for the crypto involved. This outflow reduces the supply of coins, and the crypto appreciates.

Wallet to wallet transactions

These transactions do not have very high effects on the market value of the cryptos. When a whale moves cryptos from one wallet to another, the transaction is untraceable.

Use of whale tracking tools

Any node that has access to a blockchain can do an analysis of all transactions on that blockchain. However, this process is cumbersome, and there are better tools that can make it easier. These tools include Blockchain explorers and Whale Alert.

Blockchain explorers

They act as a database for blockchain and are there to check transaction records. An explorer such as Etherscan can show various data points and all transactions happening with Ethereum.

Whale Alert

It is a Twitter account that posts records of large crypto transactions. This channel also has an API for customizing the data provided.

Use of paid on-chain analysis platforms.

Platforms like Glassnode and CryptoQuant require a subscription fee to provide information about transactions made by crypto whales. However, no platform is 100% accurate, and some data may be misleading.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is good to learn more about crypto whales since their influence in the crypto world is inevitable. Crypto whales can be individuals or organizations. Since their main aim is to make profits, learning their tactics of influencing the markets is one of the best choices.

As per the above information, we can see that crypto whales are the most influential entities in the crypto world.

Most of the crypto whales have been in the game since it started. Therefore, they are very knowledgeable and manipulative. You will know when it is the best time to dump and when to buy more cryptos once you understand the role of crypto whales. Purpose to gather more knowledge about these entities, and you will enjoy being a crypto adopter.