[2017-12-08] The Bitcoin Whales: 1,000 People Who Own 40% of the Market

[B!t_Kong]

A few massive investors can rock it with a shrug.

On Nov. 12, someone moved almost 25,000 bitcoins, worth about $159 million at the time, to an online exchange. The news soon rippled through online forums, with bitcoin traders arguing about whether it meant the owner was about to sell the digital currency.

Source:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/the-bitcoin-whales-1-000-people-who-own-40-percent-of-the-market

[odolvlobo]

I doubt those numbers. The author is probably just another uninformed journalist that believes that an address is the same as a person.

[laurenB7742]

I doubt those numbers. The author is probably just another uninformed journalist that believes that an address is the same as a person.

On one hand, each person can own more addresses so this could mean that those 1000 addresses (journalist referring to them as "1000 people") belong to less than 1000 people because each person can have more addresses. So this is even more alarming because 40% of bitcoins are in hands of only a few people.

But on the other hand, we have to know that exchanges transfer majority of deposited bitcoins to cold storage wallets for maximum security. This means that many of those 1000 richest addresses belong to exchanges - in fact belonging to customers. So if we want to make rich-list of BTC addresses we need to exclude addresses of the exchanges. I guess the result would be that 1000 richest people own less than 40% if bitcoins.

[cynical]

I would like to see a transaction id or a wallet address,
I mean how did bloomberg get this information?
someone somewhere had to have noticed it by a transaction of some sorts?

[Lucius]

I would like to see a transaction id or a wallet address,
I mean how did bloomberg get this information?
someone somewhere had to have noticed it by a transaction of some sorts?

I check is there any link with this transaction,but for now I have not found any other news regarding this then Bloomberg.There is information for 50 largest transaction on blockchain.info but only for present day.Since this transaction allegedly happened on November 12, I do not know is it possible to check largest transaction for a specified date.

Regarding most richest people in BTC we can only guess number of BTC they actually possess,but with time number of people which own very large amounts of BTC will surely increase.High price will encourage many small amount holders to sell,and people with big money will buy.It is the eternal story that the big fish at the end always eat small fish.

[Xavofat]

People often own many addresses and services often own fewer addresses (such as cold wallets) so it's hard to actually estimate how many people hold the majority of funds.

Still, I can understand how a rapid appreciating asset would result in just a few holders controlling a huge amount of the market.  There's also anonymous entities like satoshi which are considered to own large amounts of coins.

Anyway, if this is true, at least it's functioning like fiat currency now!  Mass adoption just round the corner! /s

[Coffee135]

I would like to see a transaction id or a wallet address,
I mean how did bloomberg get this information?
someone somewhere had to have noticed it by a transaction of some sorts?

I check is there any link with this transaction,but for now I have not found any other news regarding this then Bloomberg.There is information for 50 largest transaction on blockchain.info but only for present day.Since this transaction allegedly happened on November 12, I do not know is it possible to check largest transaction for a specified date.

Regarding most richest people in BTC we can only guess number of BTC they actually possess,but with time number of people which own very large amounts of BTC will surely increase.High price will encourage many small amount holders to sell,and people with big money will buy.It is the eternal story that the big fish at the end always eat small fish.

You are quite right. Many whales use a large number of their coins in order to unbalance the market. Such actions they constantly provoke panic and force small fish to sell your coins. If you get used to it during the reset, you can buy coins whales. A flock of small fish to provide the resistance.

[hatshepsut93]

Whales might be able to influence the price, but it's never simple - there's always a risk that they will get "outmanipulated" - just read the story of bearwhale for example. And it doesn't really matter much how many coins people control, since on a protocol level all users are equal. The problem with traditional finance is that political power can be used to enrich yourself at expense of others, but in Bitcoin there's no one to bribe, it's governed by code and not some regulators and law enforcement, which is much better since humans can't be trusted.

[MoonJeina]

That might be true . For an asset like Bitcoin many millionaire investors have invested in it . 40% might be a wrong ratio but that is true that there must have been many millionaire investors holding a good number of bitcoin . The selling and fundraising by them highly determines the ups and downs in the bitcoin's value .
Many people would ask for proves for such speculations which i totally justified on the behalf of reader . But getting proves for such record might not be an easy task . For a millionaire investor it will not be very difficult to hold 5000 bitcoin , and that number can heavily determine the bitcoin value.