Who are crypto whales?
So, “crypto whales” is a popular name for cryptocurrency owners who started investing back in 2013 and who on average own more than 1,000 Bitcoins (BTC), or about 27.3 million US dollars.
For the past ten years, they have been in the dormant phase, which means that there was no activity on their wallets. However, at the end of April, the first movements were recorded:
- One of them holds BTC worth about $176 million and for the first time in nine years has transferred $60 million.
- Another example stores BTC worth $31.6 million and has transferred $7.8 million, for the first time in a decade.
What is common to these two examples is that both of them started investing in 2013 and have now transferred funds to completely new addresses.
Why is their movement important to the community?
In early May, it was reported that crypto whales bought bitcoin worth about $1.8 billion in just two weeks. Among them are wallets that have between 100 and 10K BTC ($2.8M and $278M).
In addition to this “whale watching” being interesting and mysterious, their activities are important to the crypto community for many reasons.
For example, their “awakening” may indicate that this is a major attack exclusively on those cryptocurrency owners who own the most funds and who keep them at a single address, as one user described on Twitter.
In just four months, more than 5,000 ETH (about $10 million) was extracted from digital wallets, and so far no one knows how this happened. What is certain is that the target of this attack is exclusively crypto whales, at least for now, which further indicates that if they have suffered these consequences, no one else is safe.
It is assumed that whoever is behind this attack has obtained old data, including private keys, which he uses to extract funds from other people’s wallets.
As crypto whales now create new addresses to transfer their funds to, and attacks become increasingly sophisticated, cryptocurrency owners can consider keeping their assets at more than one address.
But their activity is important for another reason, which is associated with their name. Whales are known as mammals that can stir up their environment, and so in the context of crypto it is assumed that their moves can greatly affect the market, since they possess extremely large assets.
The fact that they are buying and retaining more Bitcoins suggests that they expect its value to rise further in the future. Moreover, if they come together, they can also intentionally cause major changes in the market.
The most interesting wallets of crypto whales
To get a better picture of what crypto whales do, what their digital assets are, and what the most common activities look like, we’ll share a list that Milk Road has compiled regarding the most interesting crypto whale wallets.
- “The Risk Taker” (~$63M in assets)
- “The Banker” ($8.5M in assets)
- “The Liquidity Provider” (~$15.5M in assets)
Their digital assets are increasing day by day, so it’s no surprise that many crypto enthusiasts are copying exactly their moves.
