Do(es) Whale(s) really still exist in Bitcoin ?

[Harkorede]

I have been pondering a lot on this question about the so called whale or whales who tends to posses a very large amount of a particular coin, thus, can therefore decide and manipulate its price. Here is my question, as of today 13th Of October, 2018 according to Coinmarketcap the circulating supply of Bitcoin is 17,319,950 BTC which is valued at $109,223,445,757. In order to have a 10% effect on the price of bitcoin then one needs to own 10% or more of the total in circulation right ? That is valued $10,922,344,575 ($10.9223446 billion USD). Is there really someone or a group of people that owns 10-20% of the supply that can manipulate the price, as people do say, or is there some other way around the manipulations ?

[Marcel555]

Whales exist in any business or commercial sector, and bitcoin is not an exception.

Whales are not in it to manipulate the market, they are most time strong enthusiasts some of who joined in the early days, when there was little hype.

It is believed that a handful of people (less than 2000) hold more than 30% of the entire BTC in circulation.
If that is true, they very likely do not know each other.
Some prefer to buy OTC when making a huge purchase to keep it quiet.
Bitcoin as a currency has matured, and is less prone to price manipulations.

[cryptohunter]

I have been pondering a lot on this question about the so called whale or whales who tends to posses a very large amount of a particular coin, thus, can therefore decide and manipulate its price. Here is my question, as of today 13th Of October, 2018 according to Coinmarketcap the circulating supply of Bitcoin is 17,319,950 BTC which is valued at $109,223,445,757. In order to have a 10% effect on the price of bitcoin then one needs to own 10% or more of the total in circulation right ? That is valued $10,922,344,575 ($10.9223446 billion USD). Is there really someone or a group of people that owns 10-20% of the supply that can manipulate the price, as people do say, or is there some other way around the manipulations ?

In order to have a 10% effect on the price of bitcoin then one needs to own 10%

NO... perhaps long term yes but you can dump a few 1000 btc to create flash dumps from the heard ... especially if combined with some good fud or some bad news

[aoluain]

I have been pondering a lot on this question about the so called whale or whales who tends to posses a very large amount of a particular coin, thus, can therefore decide and manipulate its price. Here is my question, as of today 13th Of October, 2018 according to Coinmarketcap the circulating supply of Bitcoin is 17,319,950 BTC which is valued at $109,223,445,757. In order to have a 10% effect on the price of bitcoin then one needs to own 10% or more of the total in circulation right ? That is valued $10,922,344,575 ($10.9223446 billion USD). Is there really someone or a group of people that owns 10-20% of the supply that can manipulate the price, as people do say, or is there some other way around the manipulations ?

In order to have a 10% effect on the price of bitcoin then one needs to own 10%

NO... perhaps long term yes but you can dump a few 1000 btc to create flash dumps from the heard ... especially if combined with some good fud or some bad news

FUD spreading is a way to amplify the effect of dumping a notable amount of Bitcoin.
Wales do exist in this cyrpto space and they have and can have an effect on the market
to some degree.

Why would anyone think there arent whales?

[Jating]

I have read this article before, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/the-bitcoin-whales-1-000-people-who-own-40-percent-of-the-market.

True or not, whales exist on other market as well. The only difference is that in crypto, we only have addresses, with no associated names. So all we can do is speculate it indeed they exist or who owns that huge amount of bitcoins. There are speculations as well that they do connive with one another at some point to bring down the price so that they can accumulate more.

[pundit]

I have been pondering a lot on this question about the so called whale or whales who tends to posses a very large amount of a particular coin, thus, can therefore decide and manipulate its price. Here is my question, as of today 13th Of October, 2018 according to Coinmarketcap the circulating supply of Bitcoin is 17,319,950 BTC which is valued at $109,223,445,757. In order to have a 10% effect on the price of bitcoin then one needs to own 10% or more of the total in circulation right ? That is valued $10,922,344,575 ($10.9223446 billion USD). Is there really someone or a group of people that owns 10-20% of the supply that can manipulate the price, as people do say, or is there some other way around the manipulations ?

Whales are not any individuals, its like institutions have hired some people to invest in market from their end and take trades, they were given an amount to trade, individuals may have good amount trade but its not possible that he/she can fluctuate the market, its the institutional investment that makes changes, an individual even if have billions usd, he/she would not dare to take risk of all his/her capital.

[jcpone]

I have read this article before, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/the-bitcoin-whales-1-000-people-who-own-40-percent-of-the-market.

True or not, whales exist on other market as well. The only difference is that in crypto, we only have addresses, with no associated names. So all we can do is speculate it indeed they exist or who owns that huge amount of bitcoins. There are speculations as well that they do connive with one another at some point to bring down the price so that they can accumulate more.

You're definitely right that whales exist, but there's no way to identify them. This is one of the reasons why bitcoin's price is tagged as manipulated and controlled by other experts. It's so impossible to prove their existence, however we can prevent further damage cause by manipulation if investors would not panic every time there's sharp decline.