What happens to BTC if just a few whales will buy all left supply?

[Teresa_FX1]

There is 18.5 million BTC in circulation right now, more than 1 million BTC is lost or in dormant addresses, the biggest crypto funds and exchanges keep buying it. What happens if just a few whales will buy and control them all?

[8m_zk]

No good for BTC and the idea of decentralization if it will be controlled by whales or some Wall street bankers.

[Rodeo02]

There is 18.5 million BTC in circulation right now, more than 1 million BTC is lost or in dormant addresses, the biggest crypto funds and exchanges keep buying it. What happens if just a few whales will buy and control them all?

They can easily manipulate it in the price they want to.and many of the small traders will buy and see if they are  able to buy it cheaper.

If that things happen I don't think someone continue to have interest buying it ,if they know that there are whales that controling price. if that thing happen I'm sure others people or more of the investorrs will prefer to just look for  another crypto currency that is not easily manipulated.

[Lucius]

~snip~

18.5 million+ is the total amount mined so far, and what is available for trading is much less and probably does not amount to more than 2-3 million BTC on the open market and through OTC. The number of lost BTCs is just a matter of speculation, there are no reliable ways to define it even approximately.

Not only a few whales can buy all the BTC, it takes a huge amount of money for that - and the more demand grows, the higher is the price, so they need even more money. Still, Bitcoin is on the open market, and we can't stop anyone from investing their money, but we can definitely prevent them from buying most of the coins if we invest also and hold for long term. They have large amounts of money, but our strength is in the numbers

[arcmetal]

There is 18.5 million BTC in circulation right now, more than 1 million BTC is lost or in dormant addresses, the biggest crypto funds and exchanges keep buying it. What happens if just a few whales will buy and control them all?

Now, do you mean all the remaining coins left to mine, or all the coins in circulation now ?

Either way, this is a ridiculous situation, and not something that would really happen.

In the light of nonsensical, I can give an extremely nonsensical answer to show how this is not something to worry about.

Let's says the whales start buying up the last of the few remaining coins, as you put it.  This would shoot the price up to the stratosphere.  The market cap for bitcoin currently sits at over 250 billion.  Then the remaining coins that have not been bought will try to equate to that value, so one can say that this would push the price of the last bitcoin to over a billion (to keep this simple).  Maybe it hits 5 billion.  Whatever, this is nonsensical.

Now we are in a situation were there are no more coins left to buy, and then someone like me starts to sell a single bitcoin.  I'd begin by selling tiny amounts at first so that I could draw out as much value as possible.  If I am careful enough I could sell my one bitcoin for a billion dollars (since no one else is selling because all the whales are holding the last bitcoins).

OK, on the other hand, yes, please, all whales out there please buy up every last remaining bitcoin.

[Tytanowy Janusz]

1- Who will sell them? Not me ... the sale is optional. I will not sell my last BTC before 1 mln $, many may have similar approach. they will have to push price to they sky to do this. Invest trillions.
2- Owning a major share is not controlling. 51% of miners are controlling bitcoin not "few whales" who have most of coins
3 - It's not easy to control price of something that is that big. Even if few whales will do it it will still be few whales. If one of them will try to dump price to 1$ others will buy and opposite. And even if it would be 1 whale owning 60% of BTC there is still an entire market against him and others $ whales that would like to become BTC whales.

[Vaculin]

They have been manipulating it already but they won't do that forever as they just can't simply do it.
Bitcoin as it stays longer the adoption will increase and with the increase of adoption, the manipulation power of the whales will decrease.

Just think it this way, whales buy low and sell at a profit but the market trend will not be forever as it will change overtime especially if people will be more educated as they will make a matured decision.

Bitcoin will be successful with massive adoption, and that means we are enjoying its use case.

[teosanru]

There is 18.5 million BTC in circulation right now, more than 1 million BTC is lost or in dormant addresses, the biggest crypto funds and exchanges keep buying it. What happens if just a few whales will buy and control them all?

It's pretty difficult for any whales to buy the remaining supply. Actually this is the best part about btc. Limited supply means that whenever some one tries to buy a big chunk price would adjust itself to the remaining supply of Bitcoin thereby making the remaining supply much more valuable and making it even more harder for someone to buy. But this obviously won't be a good sign for retail users as the utility of btc would be more or less over. You won't see much transactions in BTC technically controlling would mean holding and nothing more.

[avikz]

There is 18.5 million BTC in circulation right now, more than 1 million BTC is lost or in dormant addresses, the biggest crypto funds and exchanges keep buying it. What happens if just a few whales will buy and control them all?

Yes, if the whales can spend around $248 billion, then they can own al bitcoin currently circulating in the market, which is highly unlikely to happen! Also if onsly a handful of whales own all bitcoins, there will no circulation of bitcoin within the market so bitcoin will be pretty much dead. No one would want to invest in a dead currency so bitcoin's value will become zero! So whales will not get any profit out of it, so they wouldn't do that either! Hope it makes sense!

[tbct_mt2]

If all supply is here, now, whales can buy all bitcoin at its today price. In life, it is not easy as that because there are unmined bitcoin and whales have to buy all left bitcoin many years in the future. Bitcoin adoption will increase and price of bitcoin will rise together with its adoption. This fact causes troubles for whales and they can not buy all bitcoin at $14000 or at $20000. They have to buy gradually and slowly and the price they buy will be higher years after years.

Moreover, daily trading volume is not depended on total circulating supply or total supply. It depends on how quick or slow people trade their bitcoin. This activity is more important than circulating supply or total supply (that can not be changed by traders or miners).

[Twinkledoe]

There is 18.5 million BTC in circulation right now, more than 1 million BTC is lost or in dormant addresses, the biggest crypto funds and exchanges keep buying it. What happens if just a few whales will buy and control them all?

Yes, if the whales can spend around $248 billion, then they can own al bitcoin currently circulating in the market, which is highly unlikely to happen! Also if onsly a handful of whales own all bitcoins, there will no circulation of bitcoin within the market so bitcoin will be pretty much dead. No one would want to invest in a dead currency so bitcoin's value will become zero! So whales will not get any profit out of it, so they wouldn't do that either! Hope it makes sense!

That's my take on this situation. If only few whales will hold the remaining bitcoin, it will not create demand from the market as they are holding it. Without demand and supply in action, the market is dull and don't think that it will be valuable if there is no market movement. Right now, the market is dictated by demand and supply and whales may want to possess large btc holdings but they won't aim to get the large percentage of it.

[Nalbo]

I don't think buying all the left supply by a or a few whales is even possible. You can just calculate the remaining supply with current price as you can't get all those coins for the current price. Even a small buy would make bitcoin increase in price. Buying a lot would keep on increasing it till you can't afford it anymore. And not all coins are in sell order, so you can't buy them all even if you have infinite to spend.

[davis196]

There is 18.5 million BTC in circulation right now, more than 1 million BTC is lost or in dormant addresses, the biggest crypto funds and exchanges keep buying it. What happens if just a few whales will buy and control them all?

If a few whales control all Bitcoins,the BTC market will disappear and Bitcoin will become worthless,due to the lack of market liquidity.Your hypothetical situation will never happen in real life,because the crypto whales need the army of small traders and users,in order to "exploit" them and make profits out of price manipulation and forcing the crypto newbies to sell their coins when there's panic in the crypto markets.
There are also two additional reason why the whales can't buy all Bitcoins.
1.They don't have enough capital.
2.Buying large amounts of BTC will drive the Bitcoin price to the moon,so buying more BTC will become more expensive and difficult.

[Serious475]

There is 18.5 million BTC in circulation right now, more than 1 million BTC is lost or in dormant addresses, the biggest crypto funds and exchanges keep buying it. What happens if just a few whales will buy and control them all?

If whales managed to buy all the remaining bitcoin, mass adoption will be having no chance to occur because bitcoin will be all about the business of that mentioned whales. Mass adoption will be not possible because bitcoin cannot be use all over the world if many of the people holds so much of it and if mass adoption manage to occur with those cases, many people will be poor and will be left behind. I hope that bitcoin community doesn't change and whales manage to use bitcoin in a right way to make the economy balance.

[Sebas.tian]

There is no possibility of whales buy the left Bitcoin in the market becasue Bitcoin is in the open market where anyone can buy the said Bitcoin. Those whales can only buy some few stash in the market to influence the general market for their gains, though, the whales can't have the full control on the general market because of market demands.

[dothebeats]

They’d shoot themselves on their own foot since most people would sell at their faces and move eventually to other coins where decentralization is dtill practiced and not only a few whales toss coins around each other. I’m pretty sure most whales know that even if they can buy a significant portion of bitcoin, it wouldn’t be of any good to them since this will only leave their position vulnerable for dumping, and they can’t do it faster than those with only a handful to throw. Most of them only buy a certain sizable amount just to be in the game, and not to be in control. It’s not gonna happen, and if did, they just fucked themselves over since they’ll only be the ones selling bags to each other.

[Bttzed03]

Let's say they managed that, what will they do next? How long will they be able to hold it without exhausting their own capital? They will have no choice but to unload them if they want to stay liquid. The question is at what price? They can try to manipulate and pump it but that will still be decided by the market. If demand remains high, good for these hoarders. If people decides to move to another market/crypto and let BTC price tank, then disaster for them. Remember, these guys are investors and they want to take profit as much as possible.

[GeorgeJohn]

I don't think buying all the left supply by a or a few whales is even possible. You can just calculate the remaining supply with current price as you can't get all those coins for the current price. Even a small buy would make bitcoin increase in price. Buying a lot would keep on increasing it till you can't afford it anymore. And not all coins are in sell order, so you can't buy them all even if you have infinite to spend.

Its possible to buy but the only challenge's I found there is the method to manage it without lost, looking at it from another perspective the possibility to purchase all is there, but it will caused market liquidity or manipulation of bitcoin price, but since it will be rigid to control the needful or chance of buying all is not really interesting, in all ramifications buying all will cause or make bitcoin to be difficult to purchase

[Teresa_FX1]

Yes, I mean all the coins in circulation now. For example Grayscale's been buying alot from miners. Thanks for your intersting opinion.

There is 18.5 million BTC in circulation right now, more than 1 million BTC is lost or in dormant addresses, the biggest crypto funds and exchanges keep buying it. What happens if just a few whales will buy and control them all?

Now, do you mean all the remaining coins left to mine, or all the coins in circulation now ?

Either way, this is a ridiculous situation, and not something that would really happen.

In the light of nonsensical, I can give an extremely nonsensical answer to show how this is not something to worry about.

Let's says the whales start buying up the last of the few remaining coins, as you put it.  This would shoot the price up to the stratosphere.  The market cap for bitcoin currently sits at over 250 billion.  Then the remaining coins that have not been bought will try to equate to that value, so one can say that this would push the price of the last bitcoin to over a billion (to keep this simple).  Maybe it hits 5 billion.  Whatever, this is nonsensical.

Now we are in a situation were there are no more coins left to buy, and then someone like me starts to sell a single bitcoin.  I'd begin by selling tiny amounts at first so that I could draw out as much value as possible.  If I am careful enough I could sell my one bitcoin for a billion dollars (since no one else is selling because all the whales are holding the last bitcoins).

OK, on the other hand, yes, please, all whales out there please buy up every last remaining bitcoin.

[so98nn]

There is 18.5 million BTC in circulation right now, more than 1 million BTC is lost or in dormant addresses, the biggest crypto funds and exchanges keep buying it. What happens if just a few whales will buy and control them all?

Yes, if the whales can spend around $248 billion, [...]

Exactly. I was trying to make up this calculation only. I mean come on thats huge amount of money!

This is just impossible to be spent by any richest man in the globe. Know why? Any rich person will always think twice before he could invest his/her money into the market. They do the risk analysis and then invest and thats why they are rich.

Moreover, if they buy all of it themselves then how do you think there will be liquidity in the market ?. How they will earn the profits? Lot of questions before anyone can invest that kind of money.