Original title: "What happened to the whales on the Bitcoin "rich list"?"

Original source: Huohuo, Plain Language Blockchain

We know that whales are the largest creatures in the ocean and often cause huge waves when they surface. Similarly, users who hold large amounts of cryptocurrency can cause market fluctuations when transferring funds, which is why the community refers to large holders or institutions with significant amounts of cryptocurrency as "cryptocurrency whales".

Crypto whales, especially Bitcoin whales, are the most eye-catching in the crypto industry. The term "Bitcoin whale" refers to users who hold a large amount of Bitcoin, including individuals, Bitcoin funds, and investment institutions, typically referring to those who hold at least 1000 BTC or its equivalent value in USD.

Due to these whales holding a large amount of Bitcoin, every transaction they make may have a profound impact on the market.

Therefore, it is of great significance to closely monitor the behavior of cryptocurrency whales.

Bitcoin's top whales, who are they?

People have always been paying attention to the movements of Bitcoin whales in the position rankings, but in reality, we can only track a portion of the named whales because BTC holders usually do not keep all their assets in one address, and mysterious whales do not disclose their BTC addresses publicly. We can only try to organize and analyze the data that is publicly available.

bitinfocharts BTC Address Rich List TOP10

1) Gray Bitcoin Trust: 654,885 coins

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, also known as GBTC, is a Bitcoin trust established in 2013 by Barry Silbert, who is also the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), a Bitcoin and blockchain investment company. The trust is sponsored by Grayscale Investments, LLC, a subsidiary of the group.

Grayscale, the holding company of the grayscale Bitcoin trust, is the largest digital asset management company in the market and one of the world's largest Bitcoin buyers. The trust fund was launched in September 2013 with the trading code "GBTC", and GBTC is one of its largest products, mainly designed for investors who want to invest in Bitcoin but are worried about 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 they will violate the law, and how to pay taxes. These shares are supported by a certain amount of Bitcoin and can be traded on the secondary market with an annual fee deduction of 2%.

For many years, Grayscale has been one of the main holders of Bitcoin. Currently, the BTC holdings of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust are 654,885 coins, worth over $17 billion, ranking first.

2) Head CEXs about 2.5 million BTC

As the most centralized place for liquidity, the cold wallet address of the head CEX usually hosts BTC deposited by 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 restriction, and the BTC wallets of these head CEXs have also been closely watched. Once there is a large inflow or outflow (transfer or theft), it may have a significant impact on the market.

3) US Government: 164004 BTC

The US government holds a total of 164,004 BTC, which is divided between two addresses. According to available information, the BTC held by US authorities was mainly confiscated from three different events.

In November 2020, the largest darknet black market Silk Road confiscated 69369 BTC.

In January 2022, Bitfinex confiscated 94643 BTC due to a hacker attack.

In March 2022, 51326 BTC was confiscated from Silk Road hacker James Zhong.

In March of this year, 9861 bitcoins were sold for a price lower than the market price, at 21877 US dollars, with a fee income of 215.5 million US dollars deducted. Due to the huge amount of bitcoins held by the United States, many market investors are always concerned about whether the United States intends to sell bitcoins. After all, such a large amount of BTC may cause severe market fluctuations.

4) Block.one: 164000 BTC

Block.one is a blockchain technology development company established in 2017, dedicated to building decentralized applications (DApps) and blockchain solutions. One of their most famous products is the EOS.IO domain name. According to reports, they raised $4 billion in funding through a year-long sale from June 2017 to June 2018, which was then converted into 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, the CEO of Block.One mentioned in an email sent to shareholders on March 19, 2019 that the company holds 140,000 bitcoins.

5) MicroStrategy: 152,333 BTC

MicroStrategy Incorporated is a US-listed company that provides business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud-based services. The company was founded by Michael J. Saylor and Sanju Bansal in 1989, and developed software for analyzing internal and external data to make business decisions and develop mobile applications.

In August 2020, MicroStrategy announced the purchase of $250 million worth of Bitcoin, followed by an additional $175 million worth of Bitcoin.

According to MicroStrategy's Q2 financial report, as of July 31, 2023, MicroStrategy holds a total of 152,800 BTC at a total cost of $4.53 billion, with an average cost per BTC of $29,672. In Q2, they added 12,333 BTC to their holdings, increasing 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 once has the asset been sold so far. On December 22, 2022, 704 bitcoins were sold at an average price of $16,776 per BTC to obtain tax benefits.

6) MTGOX K.K.: 141686 BTC

Mt. Gox K.K. (株式会社エムティーゴックス) was a well-known platform that collapsed due to a hacker attack, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It was once one of the world's largest Bitcoin trading platforms, established in 2010. "Mt. Gox" is short for "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 trades and transactions worldwide. However, in 2014, it was hacked, ceased trading, and announced that it had lost a large amount of Bitcoin in the attack, causing its users to lose billions of dollars and triggering a serious financial and legal crisis. Subsequently, Mt. Gox's bankruptcy application and liquidation process lasted for several years.

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

However, the BTC balance on MTGOX K.K's account can still be considered a large amount, with a total of 141,686 BTC held.

7) Marathon Digital Holdings: 12964 BTC

Marathon Digital Holdings is a US-based digital asset technology company that focuses on Bitcoin block production and blockchain technology. The company's mission is to support the security and reliability of the Bitcoin network by producing blocks, and to seek growth and innovation in the digital asset field.

As a publicly listed company, Marathon Digital Holdings has a professional team in the digital asset field, dedicated to utilizing blockchain and Bitcoin technology innovation.

Currently, the largest unrealized profit (keeping profits unrealized by holding) in Bitcoin holdings is 106.3%, due to the nature of their block production business, which has an entry price of 0 US dollars per Bitcoin, although this does not include the costs of labor, facilities, and electricity involved in mining Bitcoin.

From a starting market capitalization of nearly $1.9 billion in 2021, the cryptocurrency industry practitioner's market capitalization has grown 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: 10800 BTC

In the past two years, Tesla's cryptocurrency holdings have experienced significant fluctuations. In February 2021, Musk's innovative car company purchased approximately $1.5 billion worth of 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 as a payment option, allowing customers to use Bitcoin and Dogecoin to purchase certain products. However, they later removed Bitcoin from the approved payment options.

In the second quarter of 2022, the company announced in its financial report that it had sold 75% of its total holdings due to environmental concerns and the need for asset rebalancing. Since then, they have retained the remaining 25% (approximately 10,800 BTC) and have not made any further trades.

According to the latest news yesterday (August 17th) from the Wall Street Journal, SpaceX, the brother company of Tesla, sold a total of $373 million worth of Bitcoin it held in 2020 and 2021, but did not specify the quantity or time. Musk mentioned in a speech in 2021 that SpaceX owns Bitcoin, but the amount was not disclosed as the company is private.

Perhaps influenced by this news, the price of Bitcoin plummeted by more than 8% this morning, falling to $25,409 at one point. The Bitcoin price on Bitfinex was even lower, hitting a low of $24,715 before rebounding to $26,000. This drop marks the lowest point for Bitcoin since June 20th.

9) Hut 8 Mining Corp: 9152 BTC

Hut 8 Mining (Chinese name: Hut 8 Mining) is a Canadian Bitcoin mining company that focuses on block production of Bitcoin and management of digital assets.

The company was founded in 2017 and is one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin block production companies in North America. It has mining facilities in multiple locations in Canada and verifies and records transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain by solving complex algorithmic problems, in order to receive Bitcoin as a reward. Based on its three main mining centers, it is able to mine approximately 300 Bitcoins per month on average.

As a publicly listed company, Hut 8 Mining is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and investors can participate in its Bitcoin block business by purchasing company stocks. The company aims to provide investors with direct opportunities to participate in Bitcoin by offering efficient block production services.

Since 2021, the company has increased their total Bitcoin holdings by adding 10766 BTC, and now holds a total of 9152 BTC.

The company has maintained its long-term "HODL strategy" in the face of market fluctuations, and all BTC holdings have been deposited into a trust. Currently, the company holds a total of 9152 BTC.

However, with the increasing difficulty of producing blocks due to the Bitcoin halving, Hut 8 Mining Corp's profits in the second quarter of 2023 were not satisfactory, leading to a decline in the HUT stock price.

In addition, according to Block's report on August 6th, stablecoin issuer Tether disclosed in its quarterly report that it holds about 1.67 billion US dollars worth of Bitcoin. This makes Tether one of the top holders of this asset. Although Tether has not officially disclosed its Bitcoin address, it is likely that Tether holds multiple Bitcoin wallets.

Whale Movement Tracking

In addition, the top 200 Bitcoin addresses hold approximately 20% of the total circulating Bitcoin. There are also many individuals or entities holding large amounts of Bitcoin, and many of them are in anonymous status.

Source: Tokenview

According to Glassnode data, the number of Bitcoin whales reached a peak of about 2500 in February 2021 since the last Bitcoin halving in 2020, and has been declining ever since. There was only a rebound between February and March 2022, and it reached its lowest point on February 19, 2023. The number of wallet addresses holding more than 1000 Bitcoins (or more) is only 2027, compared to 2023 during the last lowest point on August 5, 2019.

The total balance of the giant whale entity has also been declining. According to the chart below, the giant whale entity accounted for 46% of the total supply this year, which is lower than the 63% at the beginning of 2021.

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

On August 3rd, according to market news from Santiment, the number of Bitcoin addresses holding at least 100 BTC has reached nearly 16,000 (15870). These whale addresses collectively hold 11.5 million BTC, which is more than half (59.2%) of the current total supply. Over the past 12 weeks, the total holdings of these addresses have increased by nearly 2.88 million BTC.

Many traders believe this is a bearish signal and may trigger concerns about an impending price drop. Although the recent capital flow of Bitcoin whales has reached hundreds of millions of dollars, the current price of Bitcoin has not yet broken through $30,000. However, for smaller investors, this may mean new opportunities.

Similar to the decline in bullish sentiment, the net position change of Bitcoin holders has recently reached the lowest point in the past month. This indicator measures the long-term position changes of investors on a monthly basis, showing whether investors are increasing or decreasing their positions in Bitcoin.

According to data provided by Glassnode, this indicator has just reached a monthly low of 17,604.723. This indicates that in the past few weeks, more holders have closed their Bitcoin positions to take profits rather than opening new positions. This also indicates that the whales have been active and then returned to a wait-and-see state.

From a more macro perspective, people may be more concerned about global economic recession, and investors lack the motivation to increase their risk market positions. In addition, the possibility of approval for Bitcoin spot ETF has not been determined recently, and the market lacks further confidence. At the same time, there is still some pessimism about the regulation that cryptocurrencies are facing.

You can get some insights from the Bitcoin futures market. The Bitcoin futures market holds a very important position in the trading field, and futures contracts are financial agreements between two parties, where the actual BTC does not change hands. However, in the past seven months, the trading volume related to Bitcoin futures has been declining.

The latest data shows that BTC futures trading volume has dropped to the lowest level since December 2022, averaging less than 7 billion US dollars per day. This indicates that traders are either unwilling to take further action at current price levels, or they have shifted their attention to other markets with higher volatility or greater potential for significant changes.

Overall, there is suspicion that some individual whales have been reshuffled, and some whale activities and adjustments are mainly driven by short-term holders. Most whales hold Bitcoin as an asset and maintain a wait-and-see attitude while maintaining unrealized profits.

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 whale holders.

Since 2021, the number of super whales has decreased, but there have also been rebounds during specific time periods, and more retail investors have entered the market. This may be due to the surge in applications for Bitcoin ETFs by US institutions causing some short-term fluctuations. Most of the major corporate whale holders still hold Bitcoin assets and have not sold large amounts, and are mostly in a wait-and-see state.

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