The new study examined the 32 largest BTC wallets, which reportedly represent 1 million BTC i.e. approximately $6.3 billion. The data analysis reveals:
Quite contrary to the common belief, the study further credits these whales to congregating and trying stabilizing the markets. The study states:
During the course of the research, the firm managed to divide the 32 wallets into four groups –
- Traders: The most active of the lot, these nine wallets controls over 332,000 coins, worth over $2 billion. They regularly conduct bitcoin transactions on exchanges. The relatively recent traders entered the markets in 2017 and own only a third of total whale holdings.
- Miners and the Early Adopters: 15 investors, who hold a total of 332,000 coins(same as the traders) forms the second largest group of whales. They entered the market prior to 2017 and made significant divestments in 2016 and 2017 when the token soared.
- Lost: 5 wallets that hold over 212,000 coins, worth approximately $1.3 billion, these owners have lost their private keys and thus have lost access to their bitcoin holdings. This can be derived from the fact that no transactions was observed from these whales since 2011. ?
- Criminals: the smallest segment of the lost, it constitutes 3 wallets that hold over 125,000 coins and approximately $790 million. Two of them are connected with the Silk Road darknet market, while the other appears to be involved in money laundering.
“That net activity demonstrates that trading whales were not selling off Bitcoin in any mass amount, but rather were net receivers of Bitcoin from exchanges in late 2016 and 2017. This indicates that trading whales were, in aggregate, buying on declines and, consequently, were a stabilizing, rather than destabilizing factor in the market…”
The managing partner at Multicoin Capital, Kyle Samani, said then that he “think[s] there are a few hundred guys. They all probably can call each other, and they probably have.”
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