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Between the months of October 2021 and November 2021, the Shiba Inu (SHIB) cryptocurrency had witnessed a surge that reached a market capitalization of more than US$20 billion. The researchers had found that one of the most significant contributors of this surge had been the “Crypto Whales”, precisely eight of them. According to their report, these whales have controlled 70.52% of the token and just one of them had controlled more than 40%. In the last week of October 2021, the whales had enjoyed returns of approximately 800% on their investments.
The cryptocurrency whales are currently becoming a common thing in the crypto world, especially when it comes to Bitcoin. Back in 2017, a single Bitcoin whale had caused the surge in the BTC price to the highest record of US$20,000 per token. On top of this, in October 2020, a user had moved more than US$1.1 billion of the cryptocurrency and made the transaction one of the largest Bitcoin transactions till date.
While these instances are not that unusual, what makes it interesting is the fact that these transactions have been happening quite often in the recent weeks. Whales lead in profit for themselves while influencing how the other investors trade the digital currencies. This is the sole reason why it is important to keep a track of these whales and what they are planning.
This article will completely focus on what the crypto whales are, what they do, how they manipulate the entire cryptocurrency market making other people fear them the most.
What Are Crypto Whales?
Whales are considered to be the biggest creatures in the ocean and the cryptocurrency sphere is considered to be an ocean where there are a lot of whales. The label generally applies to the entities or people that hold or hodl the largest amounts of the cryptocurrencies. A Bitcoin whale is usually the most common one that specifically refers to the single wallet address with more than 1000 BTC. Thus, people owning a large amount of the other currencies apart from Bitcoin (BTC) is termed as a crypto whale and a group of them is called the “crypto whales”.
Who Is A Crypto Whale?
As the cryptocurrencies have been designed to possess higher levels of anonymity, it is challenging to directly link the accounts to the specific entities or the people. However, if one closely looks at the blockchain data of all of those who have made their public addresses known, he can identify some of the people that own significant amounts of the various digital coins. It is a fact that some of these are extremely well-known BTC whales.
The creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto has been thought to hold nearly 1 Million BTC. The Winklevoss Twins, that had been played by Armie Hammer in the Social Network, had owned 1% of all the Bitcoin at one time. Various cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, Bitfinex and Huobi are also known to possess large Bitcoin wallets. Although all the funds mostly belong to their users, moving the funds within the crypto exchanges does not possess much impact on the market.
Why Do The Cryptocurrency Whales Matter?
The value of the cryptocurrency coins is determined by and large via the supply and demand. This means that if a large portion of the supply of the particular coin is not let to circulate, this will automatically drive up the price of the coins that are left in circulation. It means that if a large number of the digital coins are suddenly liquidated, the value of these coins will eventually drop. Owing to these, the whales bear an unique ability to essentially manipulate the entire cryptocurrency market for their own benefit.
For example, there might be a situation where a crypto whale might wish to acquire more coins for a cheaper price. In such a situation, all that they would require is to start selling an impactful portion of their held cryptocurrencies or assets. This will exert downward pressure on the crypto market and will likely generate a huge sale raising the liquidity for the coin at a pretty lower price. After this, they can simply purchase back their coins at a much cheaper price.
Then they can hold on to these cryptocurrencies and thereby reduce the supply. The prices tend to rise and then raise the value of the coins that they have just purchased. This is a pretty simplistic take on how the whales might affect the present market condition. However, this demonstrates the power that they exerts on the market.
What Are Bitcoin Whales?
The Bitcoin whales are considered to be the market players having significant funds that are capable of moving the cryptocurrency market. The large players are thus referred to as the Hedge Funds and the Bitcoin Investment Funds. Some of these funds have even announced their presence in the water.
The term “whale” is also frequently used to describe the big money BTC players that display their hand in the Bitcoin market. That being said, the ocean used as the metaphor for the crypto market is apt. After this, one can then extend the term to include the big and small fish, rallies as the feeding frenzies, sharks, waves as the market moves and much more.
The most noticeable and biggest Bitcoin whales are:
- Pantera Capital
- Bitcoins Reserve
- Binary Financial
- Coin Capital Partners
- Falcón Global Capital
- Fortress
- Bitcoin Investment Trust
- Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund
Usually, these funds manage hundreds and thousands of Bitcoins that they strategically and covertly put through the online crypto exchanges via the special arrangement. All of these are done out of sight and are obscured from the regular retail traders.
With the large capital mass, the institutions can move the market at their will. It is at this place where the metaphor of a Bitcoin Whale comes into existence as the other inhabitants of the ocean must just get out of the way or might be moved forcefully. In addition to this, no current is as strong to deflect the whale from its course. Thus, its intention becomes the way. The following image shows the other inhabitants of the crypto market.
How Does The Crypto Whales Manipulate Cryptocurrencies In The Market?
Back in February 2021, the value of Ether (ETH) fell from US$1,628 to US$700 for just a minute on the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. While a lot of factors could have contributed to it, Jesse Powell, the CEO of Kraken, had felt that it was just a single whale that had decided to dump all of his savings and that resulted in the plunge.
Here is an example of the crypto whale action:
As the crypto whales hold so much of the digital assets, the movements of these assets can manipulate the token’s value in huge ways. There have been news throughout the internet about the crypto whales NFT that you can check out and get surprised. In addition to this, given that they possess more funds at stake, they also hold the largest voting power. Usually, there are two methods in which the crypto whales manipulate the crypto tokens.
1. Creating A “Sell Wall” Effect
There are times when the cryptocurrency whales put up a massive order for selling a huge chunk of their held crypto tokens. In this case, they keep the price lower in comparison to the other sell orders. This causes the volatility and results in the general reduction of the prices of the cryptocurrency coins. This is then followed by a chain reaction where the people panic and immediately start selling their crypto tokens at a cheaper price as well.
2. Capitalizing On the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
In contrast to the “sell wall” effect, the crypto whales often inflate the prices of the tokens artificially by putting in huge buy orders. They also create a desire for the cryptocurrency tokens therefore urging the people to raise their bids. While they do so, they catch the attention of the other investors who fear missing out (FOMO) on the great and profitable deal. The investors in such a scenario feel that as the demand of the token has shot up, they must also get them. In this way, the cryptocurrency whales are able to sell some of their crypto tokens for a decent profit.
In substance, the digital currency whales create a ripple effect that impacts the other crypto investors of a token. By fluctuating the price (increasing or decreasing), they are able to manipulate the cryptocurrency market in their favor. As a crypto trader, you must offer due attention to the movement of the whales. You can also do so by engaging in a blockchain analysis for keeping a track of the accounts having a high valuation of the crypto tokens and following the important whale alerts on the various social media platforms such as Twitter.
Additionally, you must also subscribe to the various analytics platforms that keep a watch on the cryptocurrency prices on your behalf.
Is It Important To Watch Whales?
The answer is no for most of the people. At the end of the day, the crypto whales are interested in the value of their coins to be extremely high. The exception to this is that if they are planning to withdraw from the market completely for any reason. You will actually lose a lot of productive time if you are chasing your tail through jumping on every wave that the crypto whales might make.
On the contrary, if you ensure that you are actually keeping an eye on the market usually and have a view on why things are moving the way that they are, it will be beneficial for you to build a long-term strategy. Additionally, you will be able to spot as well as avoid manipulation by these whales. You can also check the crypto whales list if you want to.
In the long-term investment, you are having an idea of when you wish to come out of the market or plan to make a minimum profit and consistently stick to your plan, then you are actually investing your time in preventing yourself from making rash decisions. For short-term trading, you can go ahead and set up your stop loss and stick to it. This will offer you some protection.
Conclusion
The whales are the largest animals in the ocean and considering the crypto market as an ocean, there are a lot of crypto whales who are monitoring and manipulating the market for their own benefit. They can also be termed as the most powerful investors in the digital currency market. You might want to know how to stop them but that was not any problem by far and people did not think of any way to stop them. However, it cannot yet be said if there will be any effort to do so.
People often ask “how to become a crypto whale?” To answer this, it can be said that it is not necessary to be rich if you want to be a crypto whale. The big projects of the Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) sell their tokens for very low prices. In such a situation if you are making a wide decision, then you might become a whale in no time. However, you need to consider that if the token increases a lot in its value at this moment, then you can make sure that the project is worth it.
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