This past Sunday (19), the amount of Bitcoin whales—those holding more than one thousand BTC units—declined to its lowest rate since August 2019. This indicates a sudden barren spell for whales, providing insight into their confidence in the current market and Bitcoin itself. Although it may seem simple, whale activity and success highly depend on relevant conditions, such as the currently muted environment that influences market price action. Consequently, Sunday saw a low-tiered conviction from the whales, a quick flash of nonchalance against larger trends in the crypto world. Could this signal a slow period ahead? Only time will tell.
The Number of Bitcoin Whales Peaked in 2021
On Sunday, a crypto analytics service known as Glassnode reported that there are only 2,027 Bitcoin whales – the least amount since August 5th of, 2019. With each whale possessing approximately $25 million worth of Bitcoin and its current market rate at around $25,000 per coin, this is an immense indication of trustworthiness towards digital currency.
In February 2021, the number of Bitcoin whales peaked at nearly 2,500, yet it has been on an incline ever since. This is despite a market rally that occurred between February and March 2022; whale quantities rose from about 2,117 on the 21st to roughly 2,286 by the 23rd of March.
On the Other Hand, the Situation Regarding Mega Whales Is Very Different
The same trend does not appear among the so-called mega whales, those that have more than 10,000 BTC, representing an investment of more than US$ 250 million at current prices. There are only 117 Mega Whales, right next to the all-time highs of 123 in November 2022 and 126 in October 2018. Their behavior has historically been much less correlated with the price of BTC.
However, the number of small investors in BTC, portfolios with more than one currency, has gradually increased over the last five years with some drops, despite the dramatic changes in the price of the digital currency that we have seen in the period.
The number of wallets holding more than one Bitcoin currently stands at 982,000, a solid increase from around 814,000 at the time of last year and 788,000 in February 2020.
The news comes as the price of BTC rose during 2023 after dropping sharply towards the end of 2022 following the high-profile collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.
The price of Bitcoin has risen from $16,542 on January 1st to around $24,900 at the time of writing, an increase of over 40%.
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