The analytical company Chainalysis investigated the data of the 32 largest Bitcoin wallets amounting to 1 million BTC (about $ 6.3 billion) and concluded that holders of large amounts of cryptocurrencies, as the so-called “whales”, do not have a negative impact on market volatility digital assets, and do not serve as its stabilizing factor.
According to Chainalysis, only a third of whales are active traders. And although they can transfer large sums, they mostly go against the general movement and buy assets at the lowest prices. It is whales who stabilize the situation on the falls due to their professional interests not go against the market. They prefer to receive the necessary liquidity through OTC trading platforms, conducting large-scale operations with minimal impact on the market.
Chainalysis classifies “whales” into four categories: traders, miners, lost and criminal elements.
Most whale traders entered the market in 2017. There are more than 332 thousand BTC (over $ 2 billion) at their 9 crypto wallets, but this is only a third of the assets of all the whales. Miners and early drivers of cryptocurrency make up the second largest group of “whales”. These 15 investors also have about 332 thousand BTC and almost no activity. Chainalysis called “the lost whales” those who lost the private keys to their crypto-purses. There are 212 thousand BTC (about $ 1.3 billion) on 5 of these cryptowallets. The “whales” involved in criminal activity accounted for 3 cryptowallets with $790 million. Two of them are connected with the dark-web site of Silk Road, and one – with the laundering of funds obtained by illegal means.
Recall that in the crypto community, many fear the possible collusion of “whales” to influence the course of Bitcoin. Thus, the head of the department for studying financial markets at AQR Capital Management Aaron Brown believes that almost all of them are somehow familiar with each other and agreed long before the cryptocurrency boom began. In August of this year, rumors of a “whale” appeared, which sold over 50,000 BTC in a month, knocking the price of cryptocurrency by almost 15%.
