What makes a whale?

[BitcoinBobbeh]

I'm a healthy fish.

But what's in a whale?

Selling just 100 BTC could be life-changing, but it probably wouldn't make a big impact on a daily chart.

So how many BTC must you own to be a whale? Hundreds? Thousands?

[Cryptopher]

Depends on perspective, in trollbox I believe that a whale is identified as somebody (or bot) with a significant proportion of coins - usually enough to influence other traders.

To a small fish (most people), a whale might be somebody with 100 BTC, but ultimately we're talking thousands.

There's a whale who is bossing the Feathercoin market on BTC-E at the moment. He has got it locked down with his vast amounts of coins.

[BitcoinBobbeh]

Whales, bears, bulls, fiat, bag holders.... these terms are ridiculous. Are people into investing or National Geographic?

And when's the last time anyone said, "excuse me honey, I've got to run out to the car to get my fiat."

Fucking hell, the amount of idiotic overuse of these terms on BTC-E is enough to make your head explode.

Context.

Bitcoin is a different type of currency, so people use fiat to easily differentiate.

A punter in American Football is very different from a punter in Grand Theft Auto...

To the original point - how many BTC must a whale own?

[btcmania]

Yeah I'm just ranting.. 

[davidpbrown]

If one person or a group can control a market's behaviour just with the buy/sell action they take, then they are a whale in that market. It's a matter of how many people there are in the market and the fish's holding relative to the volume that's passing through.

As suggested above there looks to be one holder that's sat on a FTC buy at 0.0004 for 4097764 FTC = 1639 BTC. FTC isn't going to fall below 0.0004 for a while until that's removed by them.

With a small coin you can shift the market buying lite selling but in BTC, you'd need 500BTC+ to trigger a reaction at the right moment; in a smaller coin, you would be the market. If you moved a few thousand BTC as one in BTC markets, now you might move a single exchange but then BTC is growing beyond any few people's ability to affect it.. MtGox CEO aside of course. Bring on distributed exchanges and peer 2 peer and perhaps that won't be a liability in the future. As always we need more exchanges and more people holding BTC, so that their are no beasts.

[roslinpl]

I'm a healthy fish.

But what's in a whale?

Selling just 100 BTC could be life-changing, but it probably wouldn't make a big impact on a daily chart.

So how many BTC must you own to be a whale? Hundreds? Thousands?

Millions

Just kidding.

There are many wallets with ballance >4000BTC.

[keithers]

it depends on if we are talking about a beluga whale, killer whale, or blue whale...

[roslinpl]

it depends on if we are talking about a beluga whale, killer whale, or blue whale...

are there so much whales kind?

I like to be a blie one. Nice colour.

[bassclef]

The term changes with time.

A few years ago many early adopters bought tens of thousands. Of course they probably sold around $30, so those wallets are rare nowadays. Can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing.

Now a whale could be a few hundred BTC in the crypto market, as they're easier to move. The BTC market is more liquid now so it will absorb huge punches (dumps/buys) without too much movement. A BTC whale would need thousands for sure to ensure the trend continues and take others along with him.

Really it's just a convenient label.

[franky1]

there are different types of whales

recently there have been alot of killer whales being spotted. the ones with under 200BTC but they use their blubber(size) to scare smaller prey into moving or getting eaten. where as the humpback/blue whales (holding larger weight) usually swim around at a slower pace just enjoying the waters and not really causing too much harm to anything important.

[technocoma]

Guess it is all relative, but generally 1000's. Anyone that is able to move / influence the market with just their coins / funds I guess is a whale.

[keithers]

there are different types of whales

recently there have been alot of killer whales being spotted. the ones with under 200BTC but they use their blubber(size) to scare smaller prey into moving or getting eaten. where as the humpback/blue whales (holding larger weight) usually swim around at a slower pace just enjoying the waters and not really causing too much harm to anything important.

haha this is true...

[Taras]

This has always been how I classify whales:
1,000 btc = whale
10,000 btc = megawhale
1% of all btc = hyperwhale

[keithers]

does it count if you take home whales after last call at the bars and clubs?   haha

[DaFockBro]

This has always been how I classify whales:
1,000 btc = whale
10,000 btc = megawhale
1% of all btc = hyperwhale

Satoshi = grenadewhale

[hellscabane]

I tend to agree with most people on the forum in that a whale is someone with 1000+ BTC. But I guess for my own succinct comparison, I prefer to consider whales those with $1M or more in crypto and can frequently make trades to turn a profit. [I think that second point is kinda important since those that turn a profit are the ones who alter the markets more.]