What would happen if the major holders of bitcoin all decided to sell it all?

[yat97]

https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2018/09/diar-research-less-than-1-of-crypto-wallets-hold-87-of-all-bitcoins/

It's kind of concerning that so few people hold so much bitcoin.

Are these holders even active or what? I'm guessing they bought at the beginning and are all just holding.

[tinopener]

Well, if they decided to sell it all right now... this minute... I think there would be enough buyers to take up the slack

[eaLiTy]

It's kind of concerning that so few people hold so much bitcoin.

Are these holders even active or what? I'm guessing they bought at the beginning and are all just holding.

Hope you are aware that the article is published in 2018, majority of the early miners will be holding a huge amount of BTCitcoin and in recent years there are many institutional investors investing heavily in BTCitcoin and if they decide to sell off the coins in huge amount then it might affect the price if there are not many buyers and with institutional investors they might even purchase all the coins.

[mk4]

Re: What would happen if the major holders of bitcoin all decided to sell it all?

Simple. Bitcoin's price will temporarily drop. The same way how Amazon/Apple/Tesla/Microsoft or whatever other public company's stock price would also drop if it's major holders will sell. What's your point? It's how markets work.

[20kevin20]

Others would buy it.

The negative side: price would fall temporarily; the positive side? There are many! For me, two of them are very important:
 - The high % of BTC concentrated in the small % of the larger holders would decrease significantly;
 - I would get to purchase BTC cheaper

They will probably not decide to sell it right now. Since they've accumulated so many BTC, they'd likely just hurt themselves by doing so because they know that once they sell everything, they'll either miss the next train or join it with way less coins.

[sar3]

If I owned 1 BTC before that, I will still have 1 BTC after that.

[pawanjain]

Isn't it quite simple ? There are only two possibilities here

If these people with huge amount of bitcoins decide to sell altogether the price will start declining but if there are buyers who keep buying at that price then the bitcoin price will not much.
The price fluctuation might be heavy but it will remain more or less the same. But the chances of that happening is very low because people will panic and start selling more.
This will result in a big red candle indicating a huge sell off. It will be a very good opportunity for people like us to buy 

[fiulpro]

https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2018/09/diar-research-less-than-1-of-crypto-wallets-hold-87-of-all-bitcoins/

It's kind of concerning that so few people hold so much bitcoin.

Are these holders even active or what? I'm guessing they bought at the beginning and are all just holding.

See the Whales and the big Holders have 50% of the market and I do think this number would change much because Elon Musk just made a big investment and other firms are thinking of investing too and that too in millions therefore I do think that these holders if decided to sell these Bitcoins the price would fall by 50% and that would happen extremely fast and after that the people would see the opportunity to buy the Bitcoins at such a low price and it would even make the big firms more interested in buying them and we would recover as fast as the price fell.

So I think if this happened then it would be inevitable to see marker value go down but at the same time it would recover so don't be worried that much plus the profits from Bitcoins did make these companies a huge success in 2021. ( So they are not going to sell as fast)

[target]

Many holders were selling last 2018, some of them may have bought back at $3000 or maybe $10K. And it's likely the case when major holders also sell this time, they will also buy back after it but the price also will do the same as it always does. When the price is dumped it's also going to dive down. It would only mean the supply is raining.

[bassbity]

maybe for individuals holding a lot of bitcoin it is very difficult, but in 2021, large amounts of bitcoin holders will only be held by companies, and some institutions that currently see bitcoin as an asset to save from the inflation of the dollar. As a result, if the final sale is spent, it will indirectly fall into the hands of entrepreneurs who are ready to take at high prices.

[The Cryptovator]

Keep in mind, when massive sales happen then Bitcoin prices drop automatically if there are not enough buyers to buy it. It's a pretty simple calculation on the crypto industry. If all the big holders attempt to sell their Bitcoin at a time and there are not enough buyers then Bitcoin price would fall for a certain period. But if we can imagine that then we should Imagine there would buyers as well. Because many institutional buyers would attempt to buy it which would lead to a stable price.

[pixie85]

1. They'd never sell all at once. This would require some unseen before coordination. Would it be possible for all people in your town to decide they don't want their cars anymore and stop driving or that they don't want to eat meat anymore and become vegetarian? It just doesn't happen.

2. If they all decided to sell at once the exchanges wouldn't be able to handle it because they don't have that liquidity. We'd go to double digits in a day on most exchanges.

[Slow death]

definition of hodl:



people who make Hodl have good financial conditions or are able to have money to invest without hurting them in the long run, they will not sell until one day the price reaches more than $100,000. because for them it’s money they don’t need for the time being so the price will drop or not doesn’t affect them psychologically. in case one day they sell, I think it would be impossible for all Hodl to sell at the same time. Is you can't forget that whenever the price drops more people are buying, Is an endless cycle

[Poker Player]

https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2018/09/diar-research-less-than-1-of-crypto-wallets-hold-87-of-all-bitcoins/

It's kind of concerning that so few people hold so much bitcoin.

Are these holders even active or what? I'm guessing they bought at the beginning and are all just holding.

I think your example is too imaginary. So, what would happen if Bezos decide to sell all his Amazon shares or Zuckerberg all his Facebook shares etc?

Wealthy people like them don't shoot themselves in the foot. When big holders want to sell big chunks of their holdings they do it slowly precisely not to cause panick and no to draw down the price too much.

[Raflesia]

This article is old so I thought it would be a few years apart but it doesn't matter I have my own opinion.

If the main holder sells all the bitcoins someone will take over and some groups will take advantage of this kind of situation, but who knows the main character in this bitcoin?

All behind this story nobody knows I think we will stay focused on the current price not easy on speculation about how the dump happened, I think positively this will not happen by any group that will throw bitcoins away.

[tsaroz]

Most of these major holders were/are actually exchanges. It's not their own coins. And a large number of whales have entered the market in the form of institutional investors. They are more predictable and follow a predefined rule for buying and selling than individual whales making the impact of individual or a group of individual's effort of manipulation of price worthless.

[serjent05]

Well, if they decided to sell it all right now... this minute... I think there would be enough buyers to take up the slack

Or it would be the start of sell-off that lead the Bitcoin price to crash hard.  People tend to be shaken if the price of their holdings has a sudden crash.  It is man's nature to worry and act rashly in order to lessen his possible losses.  And if every major holder decided to sell their BTC all at once, I don't think there will be enough buyers to maintain the current price, since there is a very high possibility of weak hands following the sell-off which makes the selling pressure stronger.

[Asuspawer09]

https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2018/09/diar-research-less-than-1-of-crypto-wallets-hold-87-of-all-bitcoins/

It's kind of concerning that so few people hold so much bitcoin.

Are these holders even active or what? I'm guessing they bought at the beginning and are all just holding.

That's easy, it will make the market price of bitcoin drop when whales, companies, etc. sell their bitcoins in the market, especially if it is a big volume of bitcoin.

Obviously, it could end up in market manipulations, when you get in bitcoin early or invest in bitcoin when the price is just too low at some point when the market price is pumping to the moon somehow they need to make a profit in it and sell some of that bitcoins.

When the price is too high it just so risky to hold because the market price could be overpriced and it's risky when a lot of companies is holding price could easily drop when one whale sell potential others could sell as well.

[DarkDays]

Well, if they decided to sell it all right now... this minute... I think there would be enough buyers to take up the slack

Haha, that's only the optimistic view right 

For real, if that was to happen then for sure that will put the market under an incredible amount of selling pressure. So it might just lead to a downtrend, and not trying to exaggerate but it could even cause the end of the bullrun 

[Renampun]

if all Bitcoin holders decide to sell, of course, the Bitcoin price will go down...
Bitcoin price is influenced by market demand, Bitcoin would not be priced at $ 50k without high market demand for Bitcoin. You see that from day to day Bitcoin buyers continue to grow, Holders will not sell.