Bitcoin ‘whales’ – a term given to individuals who hold huge amounts of BTC – are also a cause for concern regarding decentralization. Recent data from BitInfoCharts indicates that the 100 largest non-exchange Bitcoin wallets have accumulated 150,000 BTC (approximately $579 million worth) in the past two months. Although it’s highly unlikely that any individual Bitcoin whale could ever accumulate enough BTC to affect the network itself, they are often implicated in perceived market manipulation tactics. Data from BitInfoCharts says after the largest five Bitcoin wallets, the next 100 hold 10,000-100,000 BTC and these accumulated over 150,000 BTC in the last two months. They now hold close to 2.29 million BTC. By yesterday, another 2 wallets had gotten into the list of those holding between 10,000-100,000 BTC making it to 102 wallets. The largest amount of BTC or 4,316,546 BTC is held by 133835 wallet addresses holding between 10 – 100 balances while 1710 wallet addresses holding between 1000 – 10,000 hold a total of 4,316,546 BTC, the second largest amount for categories. However, 48.54% of addresses hold a total of 2,270 BTC according to the data. Unless the whales had recently sold at the peak, they would have been financially better off buying at $3600 a week earlier than at $3800 after the drop. Nevertheless, whenever there are unexplained price movements, it is perhaps somewhat comforting that we can always blame the whales. |
