Bitcoin Whale Numbers Reach All-Time Highs

Thanks to the increase in Bitcoin’s price in the previous week, the top cryptocurrency by market capitalization saw its whale numbers reach a new all-time high. A whale wallet refers to any wallet that contains more than 1,000 BTC, which is almost $13 million. On October 25th, 2020, the number of Bitcoin whales reached 2,231 in total, whereas the whales recorded on October 20th, 2020 had been around 2,178 whales. Glassnode provided the numbers, which indicate that the crypto whales of BTC are in control of approximately 2.25 million Bitcoin. This is the equivalent of 12% of the total Bitcoin supply in the market currently.

A Bitcoin network data provider, BitcoinCharts has made it clear that the numbers are probably far higher. According to their data, the Bitcoin whales a staggering amount of 7,902,469 BTC, which is almost 42% of the existing supply of the coin. Another important thing to note is that while it is possible to know the whale addresses that exist, it is not possible to determine the individuals or entities controlling it, or how many there might be. It is possible for multiple individuals or entities to control a single wallet, or it is possible for a single entity to control multiple wallets.

Apart from this, there is also a possibility of multi-signature wallets, where multiple parties could be in control of a single wallet. Researchers have alleged that approximately 1.1 billion of Bitcoin has been or still remains under the control of Satoshi Nakamoto, the original miner and enigmatic creator of the first cryptocurrency. A huge number of coins, which are believed to be owned by Nakamoto, haven’t been moved in more than a decade. There is another pattern that has come to light in the huge increase of ‘hodlers’ or those who are holding onto the top crypto until it reaches an incredible value.

This is confirmed by taking a look at the Bitcoin supply that has not been moved for a long while. As of now, nearly 62% of Bitcoin’s total market supply has remained unmoved for nearly a year. In addition, nearly one-third of the total Bitcoin supply has not been changed wallet addresses in the last three to four years. This indicates that people are quite confident in the crypto’s potential to be a store of value and give them solid returns in the future. This week, Bitcoin saw its highest weekly close after 2018. 

Even then, it appears that neither the Bitcoin whales nor the hodlers are willing to dump their BTC holdings into the market for making a profit. Time will tell how long this current bull run will continue, since this is the highest price that Bitcoin has reached in the whole year, particularly during this global coronavirus pandemic. Speaking historically, large bull runs usually end up with steep corrections, but overall the price of the crypto always rises. It would undoubtedly be interesting to see if Bitcoin will continue this trend or it has ‘settled’ into the price range.