What is a Bitcoin Whale? - The answer is here for the new people

[FUR11]

What is a Bitcoin Whale? - The Answer is here --> http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-whale

Lately a lot of forum topics discussed possible Bitcoin Whales and that they are the reason why the price of BTC has dropped. Even though I did not see this on the blockchain and it was not widely reported, it could have happened in smaller chunks.

Interresting that they mentioned this --> "So, it’s not about that 1000 BTC order you see in the exchange orderbook, or the 50 BTC that went through Dell’s online retail store today." <---- Did he use it as a example, or were there a 50 BTC transaction on Dell today?

Would be nice, if Dell could report back to us, on how successful their entrance to the BTC market was sofar. Any press willing to approach them, to ask them this question? 

How much BTC do you guys believe does it take to be considered a bitcoin-whale? In a few years this may have changed dramatically and a lot of smaller holders now will be bitcoin whales themselves then!

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[Peter882]

Whale is anyone that can cause a 80% crash in a big sell, like our friend mr 102 from btc-e

Am I understanding the graph correctly that someone has dumped over 4000 btc within one single minute?

[Bizmark13]

Whale is anyone that can cause a 80% crash in a big sell, like our friend mr 102 from btc-e

It bothers me that whales keep doing this. A couple of weeks ago, a Litecoin whale crashed the price of LTC to $3 on an exchange despite the fact that it makes no sense to dump such a huge amount of BTC or LTC at once. It would make much more sense to slowly sell off fractions of a stash - making sure you don't completely demolish all the buy orders and taking pauses in between to see how the market moves and to let the orders fill up again. You would think that most whales would be smart with their money to get to where they are today, but for some bizarre reason, this doesn't seem to be the case.

[fatguyyyyy]

the term whale is always used in finance as well - and its a general term to use also at a gambling table.

so not sure why people are surprised.

[polynesia]

It bothers me that whales keep doing this. A couple of weeks ago, a Litecoin whale crashed the price of LTC to $3 on an exchange despite the fact that it makes no sense to dump such a huge amount of BTC or LTC at once. It would make much more sense to slowly sell off fractions of a stash - making sure you don't completely demolish all the buy orders and taking pauses in between to see how the market moves and to let the orders fill up again. You would think that most whales would be smart with their money to get to where they are today, but for some bizarre reason, this doesn't seem to be the case.

The primary motive of such behaviour could be market manipulation. Think of derivative markets. A whale could take a leveraged short position on an asset. Using derivatives his return will be magnified many times by a fall in the price of the asset. Sure, by dumping his asset he loses money, but the gains on the derivative front could dwarf this.

[Tammy Chan]

Whale is anyone that can cause a 80% crash in a big sell, like our friend mr 102 from btc-e

It bothers me that whales keep doing this. A couple of weeks ago, a Litecoin whale crashed the price of LTC to $3 on an exchange despite the fact that it makes no sense to dump such a huge amount of BTC or LTC at once. It would make much more sense to slowly sell off fractions of a stash - making sure you don't completely demolish all the buy orders and taking pauses in between to see how the market moves and to let the orders fill up again. You would think that most whales would be smart with their money to get to where they are today, but for some bizarre reason, this doesn't seem to be the case.

I believe they just made a mistake in entering the sale amount (like selling 4000 btc instead of 40 btc).
I see no reason in deliberately crashing bitcoin price to $100 or litecoin price to $3, as it will go back up within minutes, and the coin sellers will have a huge loss.

The primary motive of such behaviour could be market manipulation. Think of derivative markets. A whale could take a leveraged short position on an asset. Using derivatives his return will be magnified many times by a fall in the price of the asset. Sure, by dumping his asset he loses money, but the gains on the derivative front could dwarf this.

Is it possible to make such a huge leveraged position in bitcoin trading?

[Bitsaurus]

Total amount of coin dumped during that 102 drop was about 1300 BTC - the graph only shows the total volume traded on the candlestick and the color will be net result in price.  If he dumped 1300BTC there was also 1300BTC in buys - and some auto bot buying and selling which totals out to 4K.

It could have been a fat finger mistake or somebody trying to rock the boat.  A year earlier 4000 BTC would move the price $5 from $95 to $100 

[polynesia]

The primary motive of such behaviour could be market manipulation. Think of derivative markets. A whale could take a leveraged short position on an asset. Using derivatives his return will be magnified many times by a fall in the price of the asset. Sure, by dumping his asset he loses money, but the gains on the derivative front could dwarf this.

Is it possible to make such a huge leveraged position in bitcoin trading?

Maybe not possible in bitcoin right now in established markets (which is why I used the general term assets).
But you could always have a private contract between 2 parties.
If I say "I am ready to bet that bitcoin will go down to $10 this year", I am sure there will be people who will give me very good odds.

[jaberwock]

Whale is anyone that can cause a 80% crash in a big sell, like our friend mr 102 from btc-e

It bothers me that whales keep doing this. A couple of weeks ago, a Litecoin whale crashed the price of LTC to $3 on an exchange despite the fact that it makes no sense to dump such a huge amount of BTC or LTC at once. It would make much more sense to slowly sell off fractions of a stash - making sure you don't completely demolish all the buy orders and taking pauses in between to see how the market moves and to let the orders fill up again. You would think that most whales would be smart with their money to get to where they are today, but for some bizarre reason, this doesn't seem to be the case.

Reasons:

1 - Failure when entering the values(I think every trade made it a least once, but with lower values)

2 - Need quick money to pay the mafia or some kidnapping

3 - Stolen coins( mr 102 was from Gox times)

4 - Failed try to cause a long-lasting downtrend, made by some whale mothership with 10's of coins

[abora]

Whales used to be anybody who moved 10K BTC in any direction, now moving 300BTC on Stamp or BTCe is enough to get a panic buy or panic sell as everybody looks for opportunity.  Being able to time your wall breaking is what makes a whale a whale.
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whale was the hit thing a year ago but now its panicking

[UberMakedonische]

I don't know what to say, but 10k bitcoin? wow

[polynesia]

I don't know what to say, but 10k bitcoin? wow

At some point BTC was priced in cents. 

[wasserman99]

Whale is anyone that can cause a 80% crash in a big sell, like our friend mr 102 from btc-e

I am not 100% sure what exactly happened here, however this looks like some kind of error on the exchange side. I think it would be unlikely that a whale actually caused this (it would have caused the prices on all exchanges to fall and likely not recover), however a whale is someone that could cause this kind of damage.

[Bitsaurus]

Whale is anyone that can cause a 80% crash in a big sell, like our friend mr 102 from btc-e

I am not 100% sure what exactly happened here, however this looks like some kind of error on the exchange side. I think it would be unlikely that a whale actually caused this (it would have caused the prices on all exchanges to fall and likely not recover), however a whale is someone that could cause this kind of damage.

Nope, not an error.  That's just what happens when you have no market depth and there is a large sell or buy.  Sometimes 1K of BTC will move the price $1, sometimes it will move it $50.

Slippage http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/slippage.asp

[0OI1laou1IlEuo]

Whale goes moooo like a cow