How are the whales on the Bitcoin "rich list" doing now?

Author: Huohuo, Baihua Blockchain

We know that whales are the largest creatures in the ocean, and when they surface, they often cause huge waves. Similarly, users holding large amounts of cryptocurrency can cause market fluctuations when transferring assets, which is why the community refers to individuals or institutions holding a significant amount of cryptocurrency as crypto whales.

Crypto whales, especially Bitcoin whales, are particularly noteworthy. The term Bitcoin Whale refers to users who own a large amount of Bitcoin, including individuals as well as various Bitcoin funds and investment institutions, typically referring to those holding at least 1000 BTC or its equivalent in USD.

Since these whales hold vast amounts of Bitcoin, each of their trades can profoundly impact the market.

Therefore, closely monitoring the behavior of cryptocurrency whales is of great significance.

Who are the Top Bitcoin Whales?

People have always been concerned about the movements of Bitcoin whales in the holdings ranking, but in reality, we can only account for 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 organize and analyze as much as possible through public data.

bitinfocharts BTC Address Rich List TOP10

1) Grayscale Bitcoin Trust: 654,885 BTC

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

Grayscale, the parent company of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, is the largest digital asset management company in the market and one of the largest buyers of Bitcoin in the world. The trust was launched in September 2013, trading under the ticker "GBTC," and GBTC is one of its largest products, primarily designed for investors who want to invest in Bitcoin but are concerned about risks. Investors exchange cash or Bitcoin for GBTC shares, alleviating concerns about how to store Bitcoin, legal issues, and tax implications. These shares are backed by a certain amount of Bitcoin, with an annual fee of 2% deducted, and can be traded on the secondary market.

For years, Grayscale has been one of the main holders of Bitcoin, currently holding 654,885 BTC, valued at over $17 billion, ranking first.

2) Top CEXs: Approximately 2.5 million BTC

Top CEXs, as the most concentrated places for liquidity, typically have cold wallet addresses that hold BTC belonging to the platform itself as well as a large number of user deposits. They are listed as a whale collectively because centralized CEXs can move these BTC without restrictions, and the BTC wallets of these top CEXs have been closely monitored; any large inflow or outflow (transfer or theft) could significantly impact the market.

3) U.S. Government: 164,004 BTC

The U.S. government holds a total of 164,004 BTC across two addresses. According to relevant information, the BTC held by U.S. authorities was mainly confiscated from three events:

• In November 2020, the largest darknet marketplace Silk Road was seized, resulting in 69,369 BTC;

• In January 2022, 94,643 BTC were seized from the Bitfinex hacker;

• In March 2022, 51,326 BTC were seized from Silk Road hacker James Zhong.

In March of this year, they sold 9,861 Bitcoins at a price below the market at $21,877, generating $215.5 million in revenue after deducting fees. Due to the massive amount of Bitcoin held by the U.S. government, many market investors are constantly concerned about whether the U.S. will sell its Bitcoin, as such a large amount of BTC could cause severe market turbulence.

4) Block.one: 164,000 BTC

Block.one is a blockchain technology development company established in 2017, dedicated to building decentralized applications (DApps) and blockchain solutions. One of its most famous products is the domain EOS.IO. According to relevant news, from June 2017 to June 2018, they raised $4 billion through a year-long sale, which was then converted into Bitcoin and U.S. Treasury bonds.

In addition to EOS.IO, Block.one is also involved in other areas related to blockchain and digital assets, including digital identity verification, financial services, and data privacy.

According to Bloomberg, Block.One's CEO mentioned in an email to shareholders on March 19, 2019, that the company held 140,000 Bitcoins.

5) MicroStrategy: 152,333 BTC

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

In August 2020, MicroStrategy announced it had purchased Bitcoin worth $250 million, followed by another purchase of $175 million in Bitcoin.

According to MicroStrategy's second-quarter financial report, as of July 31, 2023, MicroStrategy held a total of 152,800 BTC, with a total cost of $4.53 billion, meaning the average cost per BTC is $29,672, and they added 12,333 BTC in the second quarter. Their holdings increased from 129,699 BTC in 2021 to the current 152,333 BTC, ranking fourth, with a 17.45% increase in holdings over the past two years.

So far, they have only sold assets once, on December 22, 2022, selling 704 Bitcoins at an average price of $16,776 per BTC to gain tax benefits.

6) MTGOX K.K.: 141,686 BTC

Mt. Gox K.K. (株式会社エムティーゴックス) is a well-known platform that collapsed due to a hacking attack, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It was once one of the largest Bitcoin trading platforms in the world, established in 2010. "Mt. Gox" stands for "Magic: The Gathering Online eXchange," originally an online trading platform for buying and selling virtual magic cards.

However, over time, Mt. Gox gradually transformed into a CEX focused on Bitcoin, becoming a hub for thousands of Bitcoin transactions worldwide. However, in 2014, it was hacked, ceased trading, and announced the loss of a large amount of Bitcoin in the attack, leading to users losing billions of dollars and triggering a severe financial and legal crisis. The bankruptcy application and liquidation process for Mt. Gox lasted for several years.

Despite the massive losses and chaos caused by Mt. Gox's collapse, the incident prompted the cryptocurrency industry to pay more attention to security, regulatory compliance, and user protection, thus having a profound impact on the industry.

However, the BTC balance in MTGOX K.K.'s account can still be considered significant, holding a total of 141,686 BTC.

7) Marathon Digital Holdings: 12,964 BTC

Marathon Digital Holdings is a U.S. digital asset technology company focused on Bitcoin block production and blockchain technology. The company's mission is to support the security and reliability of the Bitcoin network through block production and seek growth and innovation in the digital asset space.

As a publicly traded company, Marathon Digital Holdings has a professional team in the digital asset field dedicated to leveraging innovations in blockchain and Bitcoin technology.

Currently, they have the largest proportion of unrealized profits (holding unliquidated profits) at 106.3%, due to the nature of their block production business, where their entry price is effectively $0 per Bitcoin, although this does not include costs related to mining Bitcoin such as labor, facilities, and electricity.

From an entry price of nearly $1.9 billion in 2021, it 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: 10,800 BTC

Over 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 in Bitcoin at an average price of $36,000 per BTC. Shortly after incorporating Bitcoin into its balance sheet, Tesla announced it would accept cryptocurrency payment options, allowing customers to purchase certain products using Bitcoin and Dogecoin. However, they later removed Bitcoin from the approved payment methods.

Then, in the second quarter financial report of 2022, the company announced 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) without further buying or selling.

According to the latest news from yesterday (August 17), The Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla's sister company SpaceX sold a total of $373 million in Bitcoin last year and in 2021, but did not specify the quantity or timing. Musk mentioned in a speech in 2021 that SpaceX holds Bitcoin, but the amount has not been disclosed since the company is private.

Perhaps influenced by this news, Bitcoin's price plummeted by over 8% this morning, briefly falling to $25,409, with prices on Bitfinex even lower, touching a low of $24,715 before rebounding above $26,000. This drop marked Bitcoin's lowest point since June 20.

9) Hut 8 Mining Corp: 9,152 BTC

Hut 8 Mining is a Canadian Bitcoin mining company focused on Bitcoin block production and digital asset management.

Founded in 2017, it is one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin block production companies in North America, with mining sites in multiple locations across Canada, verifying and recording transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain by solving complex algorithmic problems to earn Bitcoin as a reward. Based on its three main mining centers, it can mine approximately 300 Bitcoins per month on average.

As a publicly traded company, Hut 8 Mining is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, allowing investors to participate in its Bitcoin block business by purchasing company stock. The company's goal is to provide investors with direct opportunities to participate in Bitcoin through efficient block production services.

Since 2021, the company has increased its total Bitcoin holdings, adding 10,766 BTC, and now holds a total of 9,152 BTC.

The company has maintained its long-term "HODL strategy" in the face of market fluctuations, with all mined BTC stored in trust, currently holding a total of 9,152 BTC.

However, as the difficulty of producing blocks increases with Bitcoin halving, Hut 8 Mining Corp's earnings in the second quarter of 2023 were disappointing, leading to a decline in HUT's stock price.

Additionally, according to The Block's news on August 6, the stablecoin issuer Tether disclosed in its quarterly report that it holds approximately $1.67 billion in Bitcoin. This news makes Tether one of the top holders of this asset. Although Tether has not officially disclosed its Bitcoin addresses, it is likely that Tether holds multiple Bitcoin wallets.

Whale Movement Tracking

Furthermore, the top 200 Bitcoin addresses hold about 20% of the total circulating Bitcoin supply. Many individuals or entities hold large amounts of Bitcoin, and many of them are anonymous.

Source: Tokenview

According to Glassnode data, since the last Bitcoin halving in 2020, the number of Bitcoin whales peaked at around 2,500 in February 2021 and has been declining since, with only a brief rebound from February to March 2022. By February 19, 2023, the number of wallet addresses holding more than 1,000 Bitcoins (or more) had dropped to just 2,027, with the last low occurring on August 5, 2019, when the address count was 2,023.

The total balance of whale entities has also been declining. According to the chart below, this year, whale entities accounted for 46% of the total supply, down from 63% at the beginning of 2021.

Specifically, since May 30, the total balance held by Bitcoin whale addresses has decreased by approximately 255,000 Bitcoins, representing the largest monthly balance decline in history, reaching 148,000 Bitcoins.

On August 3, according to market news from Santiment, the number of Bitcoin addresses holding at least 100 BTC has reached nearly 16,000 (15,870). These whale addresses collectively hold 11.5 million BTC, accounting for 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 287,755 BTC.

Many traders view this as a bearish signal and may raise concerns about an impending price drop. Although recent movements of Bitcoin whales have reached over $100 million, the current price of Bitcoin has not yet broken through $30,000. However, for smaller investors, this may represent new opportunities.

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

According to data provided by Glassnode, this indicator has just reached a one-month low of 17,604.723. This indicates that in recent weeks, more holders have closed their Bitcoin positions to take profits rather than opening new positions. This also suggests that whales are active for a moment and then return to a wait-and-see stance.

From a broader perspective, there may be growing concerns about a global economic recession, with investors lacking motivation to increase risk market positions. Additionally, the possibility of recent Bitcoin spot ETF approvals has yet to be determined, leading to a lack of further confidence in the market. Meanwhile, there remains some pessimism regarding the regulatory challenges facing cryptocurrencies.

This can be glimpsed from the Bitcoin futures market. The Bitcoin futures market plays an extremely important role in the trading field, where futures contracts are financial agreements between two parties, and the actual BTC does not change hands. Over the past seven months, trading volumes related to Bitcoin futures have been declining.

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

Overall, individual whales may be suspected of being reshuffled, with some whale activities and adjustments primarily driven by short-term holders. Most whales treat Bitcoin as an asset and maintain a wait-and-see attitude based on unrealized profits.

Conclusion

It can be seen that the largest Bitcoin holders currently are Grayscale, top CEXs, and the U.S. government. Additionally, the stablecoin issuer Tether has also become one of the whale holders.

Since 2021, the number of super whales has decreased, but there have been rebounds during specific time periods, and the number of retail investors has increased. This may be due to the recent surge in Bitcoin ETF applications by U.S. institutions causing some short-term fluctuations. However, most corporate whale holders continue to hold their Bitcoin assets without making significant sales, remaining in a state of inactivity.