Bitcoin plummeted, what about the movements of those Bitcoin whales?
Original author: Huohuo, vernacular blockchain
We know that whales are the largest creatures in the ocean and often cause huge waves when they surface. Users who hold a large amount of encrypted assets cause market fluctuations when transferring funds, so the community refers to large households or institutions that hold more than a certain amount of encrypted assets as encrypted whales.
Encrypted whales, especially the dynamics of Bitcoin whales are the most eye-catching. The term Bitcoin Whale refers to users who own a large amount of Bitcoin, including individuals and various Bitcoin funds and investment institutions. It usually refers to those who hold at least 1,000 BTC or its equivalent in US dollars and above. .
Since these giant whales hold huge amounts of Bitcoin, every purchase and sale they make may have a profound impact on the market.
Therefore, it makes sense to keep a close eye on the behavior of cryptocurrency whales.
Who are the Bitcoin head whales?
People have been paying attention to the movements of giant bitcoin whales in the position rankings, but in fact we can only count some real-name giant whales, because BTC big players usually do not put all their assets in the same address, and mysterious giant whales also It will not publish its own BTC address to the outside world. We just try our best to organize and analyze the data by making them public.
bitinfocharts BTC address rich list TOP 10
1) Grayscale Bitcoin Trust: 654885 pieces
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, whose English abbreviation is GBTC, was established in 2013 by Barry Silbert, who is also the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), a Bitcoin and blockchain Blockchain investment company. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is sponsored by Grayscale Investments, LLC (Grayscale Investments, LLC), a subsidiary of the group.
Grayscale, the holding company of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, is the largest digital asset management company in the market and one of the largest buyers of Bitcoin in the world. It launched the trust fund in September 2013 under the trading code GBTC, while GBTC is one of its largest products, a fund primarily designed for investors who want to invest in Bitcoin but are worried about the risks. Investors hand over cash or bitcoins to Grayscale in exchange for GBTC shares, so they dont have to worry about how to store bitcoins, whether they will touch the law and how to pay taxes. These shares are supported by a certain number of Bitcoins, deducting a 2% annual fee every year, and can be traded in the secondary market.
Grayscale has been one of the most important holders of Bitcoin for many years. Currently, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust holds 654,885 BTC positions, worth more than $17 billion, ranking first.
2) Head CEXs about 2.5 million BTC
As the place with the most concentrated liquidity, the head CEXs cold wallet address usually hosts BTC belonging to the platform itself and a large number of users recharges. The reason why it is listed as a giant whale as a whole is because centralized CEXs can move these BTCs without restriction, and the BTC wallets of these top CEXs were also once focused on. Once there is a large amount of inflow or outflow (diversion or theft) may have a significant impact on the market.
3) US government: 164004 BTC
The U.S. government holds a total of 164,004 BTCs, which are held in 2 addresses. According to relevant information, BTC held by US authorities were mainly confiscated from three events:
In November 2020, Silk Road, the largest black market on the dark web, confiscated 69,369 BTC;
In January 2022, Bitfinex hackers confiscated 94,643 BTC;
51326 BTC confiscated from Silk Road hacker James Zhong in March 2022.
In March this year, 9,861 Bitcoins were sold at a lower than market price of $21,877, netting $215.5 million in fee income. Because the United States holds a huge amount of Bitcoin, many market investors are always concerned about whether the United States will sell Bitcoin. After all, such a large amount of BTC is likely to bring severe shocks to the market.
4) Block.one: 164,000 BTC
Block.one is a blockchain technology development company established in 2017, dedicated to building decentralized applications (DApps) and blockchain solutions. One of the most famous products is the domain name EOS.IO, according to related sources, between June 2017 and June 2018, they raised $ 4 billion in funds through a year-long sale and then exchanged for Bitcoin and US Treasury bonds .
In addition to EOS.IO, Block.one has also ventured into other areas related to blockchain and digital assets, including digital identity verification, financial services, and data privacy.
According to Bloomberg, Block.One’s CEO mentioned in an email to shareholders on March 19, 2019 that the company held 140,000 Bitcoins.
5) MicroStrategy: 152333 BTC
MicroStrategy Incorporated is a US public company providing business intelligence, mobile software and cloud-based services. Founded in 1989 by Michael J. Saylor and Sanju Bansal, the company develops software for analyzing internal and external data to make business decisions and develop mobile applications.
In August 2020, MicroStrategy announced that it had bought Bitcoin for $250 million, and subsequently bought another $175 million in Bitcoin.
According to MicroStrategys financial report for the second quarter, as of July 31, 2023, MicroStrategy held a total of 152,800 BTCs at a total cost of US$4.53 billion, that is, the average cost per BTC was US$29,672, and new holdings were added in the second quarter. 12333 BTC were raised. From 129,699 BTC in 2021 to the current 152,333 BTC, ranking fourth, their holdings have increased by 17.45% in the past two years.
There has been only one sale of assets so far, selling 704 bitcoins on December 22, 2022 at an average price of $16,776 per BTC for tax benefits.
6) MTGOX KK: 141686 BTC
Mt. Gox KK (Esequence Co., Ltd.) is a well-known platform that collapsed due to hacker attacks. It is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It used to be one of the largest bitcoin trading platforms in the world, founded in 2010. The full name of Mt. Gox is Magic: The Gathering Online eXchange, which was originally an online trading platform for buying and selling virtual magic cards.
Over time, however, Mt. Gox gradually transformed into a Bitcoin-focused CEX, becoming a hub for thousands of Bitcoin exchanges and exchanges around the world. However, it was hacked in 2014, stopped trading, and announced that a large number of Bitcoins were lost in the hacking attack, which caused its users to lose billions of dollars and triggered a serious financial and legal crisis. Subsequently, Mt Goxs bankruptcy filing and liquidation proceedings lasted several years.
Although the collapse of Mt. Gox caused huge losses and confusion, the incident also had a profound impact on the industry by prompting the cryptocurrency industry to pay more attention to aspects such as security, regulatory compliance and user protection.
However, the BTC balance on the account of MTGOX KK can still be called a large account, holding a total of 141,686 BTC.
7) Marathon Digital Holdings: 12964 BTC
Marathon Digital Holdings is an American digital asset technology company focusing on Bitcoin block production and blockchain technology. The companys mission is to support the security and reliability of the Bitcoin network by producing blocks and to pursue growth and innovation in the digital asset space.
As a publicly traded company, Marathon Digital Holdings has a team of professionals in the digital asset space, working to leverage innovations in blockchain and bitcoin technology.
There is currently the largest percentage of unrealized profits (keep holding unrealized profits) in Bitcoin holdings at 106.3% due to the nature of their block production business, where their entry price is effectively $1 per Bitcoin Bitcoin is $0, although this does not include costs such as labor, facilities and electricity involved in mining Bitcoin.
It has grown from an estimated entry price of nearly $1.9 billion in 2021 to $3.9 billion today. Their total Bitcoin holdings also increased by 28.94%, from 10,054 BTC to 12,964 BTC, currently ranking seventh.
8) Tesla: 10,800 BTC
Over the past two years, Tesla’s cryptocurrency holdings have experienced a lot of volatility. In February 2021, Musks innovative car company bought about $1.5 billion in bitcoin at an average price of $36,000 each. Shortly after adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet, Tesla announced it would accept cryptocurrency payment options, with the option to purchase certain products using Bitcoin and Dogecoin. However, they later removed Bitcoin from the approved payment methods.
Then in its financial statements for the second quarter of 2022, the company announced that it had sold 75% of its total holdings, citing environmental concerns and the need to rebalance assets. Since then, they have retained the remaining 25% (approximately 10,800 BTC) and have not made any further purchases or sales.
According to the latest news yesterday (August 17), the Wall Street Journal revealed that Tesla’s brother company SpaceX sold a total of $373 million in Bitcoin it held last year and 2021, but did not specify the amount or time. Musk mentioned in a 2021 speech that SpaceX owned Bitcoin, but the amount was not disclosed because the company is private.
Perhaps affected by this news, the price of Bitcoin plummeted by more than 8% this morning, once falling to US$25,409. The price of Bitcoin on Bitfinex was even lower, once touching a low of US$24,715, and then rose back to US$26,000. The drop took bitcoin to its lowest point since June 20.
9) Hut 8 Mining Corp: 9152 BTC
Hut 8 Mining (Chinese translation: Hut 8 Mining) is a Canadian bitcoin mining company that focuses on bitcoin block production and digital asset management.
Founded in 2017, the company is one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin block production companies in North America. It has mines in multiple locations in Canada and solves complex algorithmic problems to verify and record transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. Transactions, thereby being rewarded with Bitcoins. Based on its three main mining centers, it can mine an average of about 300 Bitcoins per month.
As a public company, Hut 8 Mining is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and investors can participate in its operations in the Bitcoin blockchain space by purchasing shares of the company. The companys goal is to provide investors with the opportunity to directly participate in Bitcoin by providing efficient block production services.
Since 2021, the company has increased their total Bitcoin holdings, adding 10,766 BTC and now holds a total of 9,152 BTC.
The company maintained its long-term HODL strategy in the face of market fluctuations. All BTCs were deposited into trusts, and currently hold a total of 9,152 BTCs.
However, as Bitcoin halved the difficulty of producing blocks, Hut 8 Mining Corps profit in the second quarter of 2023 was not satisfactory, and HUTs stock price fell.
In addition, according to news from the Block on August 6, stablecoin issuer Tether disclosed in its quarterly report that it holds approximately $1.67 billion in Bitcoin. The news makes Tether the top holder of the asset. Although Tether has not officially disclosed its Bitcoin address, it is likely that Tether holds multiple Bitcoin wallets.
Giant Whale Tracking
Additionally, the top 200 Bitcoin addresses hold approximately 20% of the total number of Bitcoins in circulation. There are many individuals or entities who hold large amounts of Bitcoin, and many of them are anonymous.
Source: Tokenview
According to Glassnode data, since the latest Bitcoin halving in 2020, the number of Bitcoin whales peaked at about 2,500 in February 2021, and has been declining since then, with only a rebound between February and March 2022. , reaching the lowest point on February 19, 2023, the number of wallet addresses holding more than 1,000 Bitcoins (or more) was only 2,027, while the last lowest point occurred on August 5, 2019, when the number of addresses was 2023.
The total balance of whale entities has also been declining. According to the chart below, whale entities account for 46% of the total supply this year, down from 63% at the beginning of 2021.
Specifically, since May 30, the total balance held by Bitcoin whale addresses has decreased by approximately 255,000 Bitcoins. This trend represents the largest monthly balance decline in history, reaching 148,000 Bitcoins. .
On August 3, according to Santiment market news, the number of Bitcoin addresses currently holding at least 100 BTC reached nearly 16,000 (15,870). These giant whale addresses hold a total of 11.5 million BTC, accounting for more than half (59.2%) of the total existing supply. Over the past 12 weeks, the total holdings of these addresses have increased by nearly 287,755 BTC.
Many traders view this as a bearish signal and could spark concerns that prices are about to fall. Although the recent capital flows of Bitcoin whales have reached hundreds of millions of dollars, the current price of Bitcoin still has not exceeded US$30,000. But for smaller investors, it could mean new opportunities.
In line with the fading bullish sentiment, the number of changes in Bitcoin holders’ net holdings recently reached a one-month low. This indicator measures changes in long-term investors’ positions on a monthly basis, showing whether investors are increasing or decreasing their Bitcoin positions.
The indicator just hit a one-month low of 17,604.723, according to data provided by Glassnode. This suggests that over the past few weeks, more holders have closed their Bitcoin positions to withdraw profits rather than opening new positions. This also shows that the giant whales moved for a while and then continued to return to the wait-and-see state.
From a more macro perspective, people may be more worried about a global recession, and investors lack the incentive to increase their risk market positions. In addition, the possibility of the Bit Spot ETF being approved in the near future has not yet been determined, and the market lacks further confidence. At the same time, there is still some pessimism about the regulation facing encryption.
You can get a glimpse of this from the Bitcoin futures market. The Bitcoin futures market occupies an extremely important position in the trading world. A futures contract is a financial agreement between two parties in which actual BTC does not change hands. Trading volumes associated with bitcoin futures have been declining over the past seven months.
The latest data shows that BTC futures trading volume has fallen to its lowest level since December 2022, averaging below $7 billion per day. This suggests that traders are either unwilling to take further action at current price levels, or they have turned their attention to other markets where volatility is higher or there is a greater potential for major changes.
Generally speaking, individual whales are suspected of being shuffled. Some whale activities and adjustments are mainly driven by short-term holders. Most whales hold Bitcoin as an asset and hold on to it on the basis of maintaining unrealized profits. Wait and see attitude.
summary
It can be seen that the current largest bitcoin holders are Grayscale, top CEX, and the US government. In addition, stablecoin issuer Tether has also become one of the giant whale holders.
Since 2021, the number of super whales has decreased, but there has also been a rebound within a certain period of time, and retail investors have increased. It may be that the upsurge of US institutional Bitcoin ETF applications has caused some short-term fluctuations. However, most whale holders of physical enterprises still maintain their holdings of Bitcoin assets and have not sold large amounts. Most of them are in a state of standing still.
