As Bitcoin plummets, what are the movements of the top Bitcoin whales?

We know that whales are the largest creatures in the ocean, and they often cause huge waves when they surface. Users holding a large amount of crypto assets cause market fluctuations when transferring money in a similar way, so the community calls large users or institutions that hold more than a certain amount of crypto assets crypto whales.

Crypto whales, especially Bitcoin whales, are the most eye-catching. The term Bitcoin Whale refers to users who own a large amount of Bitcoin, including both individuals and various Bitcoin funds and investment institutions. It usually refers to those who hold at least 1,000 BTC or its equivalent in USD or more.

Since these whales hold huge amounts of Bitcoin, every transaction they make may have a profound impact on the market.

Therefore, it is of great significance to keep a close eye on the behavior of cryptocurrency whales.

Who are the top Bitcoin whales?

People have been paying attention to the movements of Bitcoin whales in the holdings rankings, but in reality we can only count some of the real-name whales, because BTC big holders usually do not put all their assets in the same address, and mysterious whales will not disclose their BTC addresses. We just try to sort out and analyze the public data as much as possible.

bitinfocharts BTC address rich list TOP 10

1) Grayscale Bitcoin Trust: 654,885

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, or GBTC for short, was established in 2013 by Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), a bitcoin and blockchain investment firm. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust was sponsored by 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 Bitcoin buyers in the world. It launched the trust fund in September 2013 with the trading code "GBTC". GBTC is one of its largest products, mainly for investors who want to invest in Bitcoin but are worried about the risks. Investors give cash or Bitcoin to Grayscale in exchange for GBTC shares, so they don't have to worry about how to store Bitcoin, whether it will violate the law, and how to pay taxes. These shares are supported by a certain amount of Bitcoin, and 2% annual fees are deducted each year, and can be traded and circulated in the secondary market.

For many years, Grayscale has been one of the largest holders of Bitcoin. Currently, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust holds 654,885 BTC, worth more than US$17 billion, ranking first.

2) Top CEXs: about 2.5 million BTC

As the place with the most concentrated liquidity, the cold wallet addresses of the top CEX usually host BTC that belongs to the platform itself and a large number of users. The reason why it is listed as a whale as a whole is that centralized CEX can move these BTC without restrictions, and the BTC wallets of these top CEXs have also been the focus of attention. Once there is a large inflow or outflow (transfer or theft), it may have a major impact on the market.

3) US Government: 164,004 BTC

The US government holds a total of 164,004 BTC, which are held in 2 addresses. According to relevant information, the BTC held by the US authorities were mainly confiscated from three incidents:

In November 2020, Silk Road, the largest black market on the dark web, confiscated 69,369 BTC;

In January 2022, Bitfinex hackers seized 94,643 BTC;

In March 2022, 51,326 BTC were confiscated from Silk Road hacker James Zhong.

In March this year, 9,861 bitcoins were sold at a price lower than the market price of $21,877, earning $215.5 million after deducting fees. Because the United States holds a huge amount of bitcoins, many market investors are always concerned about whether the United States intends to sell bitcoins. 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 founded in 2017, dedicated to building decentralized applications (DApps) and blockchain solutions. One of its most famous products is the domain name EOS.IO. According to relevant information, from June 2017 to June 2018, they raised $4 billion through a year-long sale and then exchanged it for Bitcoin and US Treasury bonds.

In addition to EOS.IO, Block.one is also involved in 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 holds 140,000 bitcoins.

5) MicroStrategy: 152333 BTC

MicroStrategy Incorporated is an American public company that provides 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 purchased $250 million in Bitcoin, and later purchased another $175 million in Bitcoin.

According to MicroStrategy's second quarter financial report, as of July 31, 2023, MicroStrategy held a total of 152,800 BTC, with a total cost of US$4.53 billion, or an average cost of US$29,672 per BTC, and added 12,333 BTC in the second quarter. 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.

Only one asset sale has been made so far, when 704 Bitcoins were sold on December 22, 2022 at an average price of $16,776 per BTC to obtain tax benefits.

6) MTGOX KK: 141,686 BTC

Mt. Gox KK (株式会社エムティーゴックス) is a well-known platform that closed down due to hacker attacks. It is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It was once one of the world's largest Bitcoin trading platforms and was established 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.

However, over time, Mt. Gox gradually transformed into a Bitcoin-focused CEX, becoming the center of thousands of Bitcoin transactions and trades around the world. However, in 2014, it was hacked, stopped trading, and announced that a large number of Bitcoins were lost in the hacker attack, which caused its users to lose billions of dollars in funds and triggered a serious financial and legal crisis. Mt. Gox's subsequent bankruptcy filing and liquidation procedures lasted for several years.

Although the collapse of Mt. Gox caused huge losses and chaos, the incident also prompted the cryptocurrency industry to pay more attention to security, regulatory compliance and user protection, which had a profound impact on the industry.

However, the BTC balance on MtGOX KK's account can still be considered a large account, holding a total of 141,686 BTC.

7) Marathon Digital Holdings: 12964 BTC

Marathon Digital Holdings is a US-based digital asset technology company focused on Bitcoin block production and blockchain technology. The company's mission is to support the security and reliability of the Bitcoin network through block production and to seek 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 dedicated to leveraging innovations in blockchain and Bitcoin technology.

The largest percentage of unrealized profits (profits held that have not been realized) currently exists in Bitcoin holdings at 106.3% due to the nature of their block production business, where their entry price is effectively $0 per Bitcoin, although this does not include the costs of labor, facilities, and electricity involved in mining Bitcoin.

It has grown from nearly $1.9 billion at the entry price in 2021 to $3.9 billion today. Their total Bitcoin holdings have also increased by 28.94%, from 10,054 BTC to 12,964 BTC, currently ranking seventh.

8) Tesla: 10,800 BTC

Tesla's cryptocurrency holdings have experienced a lot of fluctuations over the past two years. In February 2021, Musk's innovative car company purchased about $1.5 billion in Bitcoin at an average price of $36,000 per coin. Shortly after adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet, Tesla announced that it would accept cryptocurrency payment options, with the option to use Bitcoin and Dogecoin to purchase certain products. However, they later removed Bitcoin from the approved payment methods.

Then in its Q2 2022 financial statements, the company announced that it had sold 75% of its total holdings due to environmental concerns and the need to rebalance its 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 sister company SpaceX sold a total of $373 million in Bitcoin it held last year and in 2021, but did not specify the amount or time. Musk mentioned in a speech in 2021 that SpaceX owns Bitcoin, but because the company is a private company, the amount has not been made public.

Perhaps affected by this news, the price of Bitcoin plummeted by more than 8% this morning, falling to $25,409 at one point. The price of Bitcoin on Bitfinex was even lower, hitting a low of $24,715 at one point, and then rebounded to over $26,000. This drop caused Bitcoin to hit 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 producers in North America. It has mines in multiple locations in Canada, where it verifies and records transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain by solving complex algorithmic problems, thereby earning Bitcoin as a reward. 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 business in the Bitcoin blockchain by purchasing company shares. The company's 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 has maintained its long-term "HODL strategy" in the face of market fluctuations, and all BTC mined have been deposited in a trust. It currently holds a total of 9,152 BTC.

However, as the difficulty of producing blocks increased after the Bitcoin halving, Hut 8 Mining Corp's second-quarter 2023 earnings were unsatisfactory, and HUT's stock price fell.

In addition, according to the Block on August 6, stablecoin issuer Tether disclosed in its quarterly report that it owns about $1.67 billion in Bitcoin. This 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.

Tracking the movements of whales

In addition, the top 200 Bitcoin addresses hold about 20% of all Bitcoins in circulation. There are many individuals or entities that hold large amounts of Bitcoin, and many of them are anonymous.

Source: Tokenview

According to Glassnode data, since the most recent 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 from February to March 2022. It reached its lowest point on February 19, 2023, with the number of wallet addresses holding more than 1,000 Bitcoins (or more) being only 2,027. The last lowest point occurred on August 5, 2019, when the number of addresses was 2,023.

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, the total balance held by Bitcoin whale addresses has decreased by approximately 255,000 Bitcoins since May 30. This trend represents the largest monthly balance drop in history, reaching 148,000 Bitcoins.

On August 3, according to Santiment market news, the number of Bitcoin addresses holding at least 100 BTC is nearly 16,000 (15,870). These whale addresses hold a total of 11.5 million BTC, accounting for more than half (59.2%) of the total supply. In the past 12 weeks, the total holdings of these addresses have increased by nearly 280,000 (287,755) BTC.

Many traders see this as a bearish sign and could raise concerns that prices are about to fall. Despite recent whale flows of hundreds of millions of dollars, Bitcoin's current price has not yet broken through $30,000. But for smaller investors, this could mean new opportunities.

In line with the fading bullish sentiment, the number of changes in the net position of Bitcoin holders recently reached a one-month low. This indicator measures the change in the position of long-term investors on a monthly basis, showing whether investors are increasing or decreasing their Bitcoin positions.

According to data provided by Glassnode, this indicator has just reached a one-month low of 17,604.723. This shows that in the past few weeks, more holders have closed their Bitcoin positions to extract profits rather than opening new positions. This also shows that whales are active and then continue to wait and see.

From a more macro perspective, people may be more worried about a global recession, and investors lack the motivation to increase risky market positions. In addition, the possibility of Bitcoin spot ETF being approved in the near future has not been determined, and the market lacks further confidence. At the same time, there is still some pessimism about the regulation faced by encryption.

One glimpse of this can be seen in the Bitcoin futures market, which plays an extremely important role in the trading world. Futures contracts are financial agreements between two parties in which actual BTC does not change hands. Over the past seven months, the volume of transactions related to Bitcoin futures has been declining.

The latest data shows that BTC futures trading volume has fallen to its lowest level since December 2022, averaging less than $7 billion per day. This suggests that traders are either unwilling to take further action at current price levels, or that they have shifted their attention to other markets with higher volatility or a greater likelihood of major changes.

In general, some whales are suspected of being reshuffled, and some whale activities and adjustments are mainly driven by short-term holders. Most whales hold Bitcoin as an asset and take a wait-and-see attitude on the basis of maintaining unrealized profits.

summary

It can be seen that the largest Bitcoin holders are Grayscale, the top CEX, and the US government. In addition, the stablecoin issuer Tether has also become one of the whale holders.

Since 2021, the number of super whales has decreased, but there have also been rebounds in certain time periods, and the number of retail investors has increased. It may be that the wave of applications for Bitcoin ETFs by US institutions has caused some short-term fluctuations. However, most of the big whale holders of physical enterprises still hold Bitcoin assets and have not sold them in large amounts, and most of them are in a state of inaction.