What to do with whales?

[MNbag]

40% of all Bitcoins are owned by just 1000 individuals.

This gives them a disproportionate amount of control over the market as they are able to dump them at anytime.

This is not to mention the high proportion of bitcoins held by miners and exchanges, who may have perverse incentives to ensure that as many people buy up bitcoin as possible and hold it for long enough for the price to rise.

Is there any way to deal with the high degree of centralisation that Bitcoin has?

[romero121]

Though 40% of the bitcoins are with 1000 individuals the market hasn't gone centralized.

The market is speculative, and this has made 40% of the individual manipulate the market. However the market manipulation is reactive based on the small scale holders. Earlier easily people used to get panic whenever there is a large volume of bitcoin moved between wallets. Now this is common and people aren't reactive, so that 40% of the individuals weren't able to have control beyond certain limit.

[NeuroticFish]

40% of all Bitcoins are owned by just 1000 individuals.
[...]
Is there any way to deal with the high degree of centralisation that Bitcoin has?

1. When saying bitcoin centralization, usually people refer to centralization of the network/nodes. And it's not the case.

2. I won't say that you're wrong or right, but without a proper source, that 40% and 1000 are basically worthless numbers.
However, like with anything valuable, it's obvious that the wealthier people will afford the risks to invest into bitcoin and will afford to buy much more than you or me. And I don't think that anything could be done about them.
But will they dump that easy? I don't know, I wouldn't be so sure. While some may hire companies to do market speculations on their behalf, others will most probably just put the coins safely and that's all.
So the number of whales actively trading should be rather small.

[BlackHatCoiner]

This is a very interesting matter to discuss.

Well, here's the deal. As long as bitcoin exists, such whales are always going to exist. If an individual is decided to keep those bitcoins, no one can make them dump them. I'll try to compare these numbers you've written (that I'm not sure where you found them) with gold.

Gold is an asset that it's owned by governments. The very much majority of gold is being kept as reserve and the minority of it is used in our everyday lives. So, I'm speculating that if bitcoin is meant to have a similar fate to gold, then we'll most likely live highly hierarchical times where few individuals control a big part of the economy.

My two sats.

[michellee]

You do not have to do anything with the whales. They will not easily drop their bitcoin to the market because they may move from a small amount and use it to increase their bitcoin amount. When those people believe in bitcoin and hold on tight their bitcoin because it is precious, they will not play with it. Maybe they only watch the price moves without doing anything. Maybe they may not know who the other whales are because they can only see the wallet address without knowing who is behind that.

[noorman0]

40% of all Bitcoins are owned by just 1000 individuals.

This gives them a disproportionate amount of control over the market as they are able to dump them at anytime.

This is not to mention the high proportion of bitcoins held by miners and exchanges, who may have perverse incentives to ensure that as many people buy up bitcoin as possible and hold it for long enough for the price to rise.

Is there any way to deal with the high degree of centralisation that Bitcoin has?

- I'm not sure that whales prefer to dump away all their coins at once and do it on the spot market which has to go through a few complicated administrative requests.
- Since altcoins have become a trend, many whales have expanded their wealth and made bitcoin a hedge. So, a large number of bitcoins are simply circulating between them.

Saying 40% based on the amount of btc stored in the top 1000 addresses I think it's not close to accuracy. There are some whales are also more convenient to store btc separately to reduce the level of risk. Even I doubt that the number of whales is much more than a thousand.

[fiulpro]

40% of all Bitcoins are owned by just 1000 individuals.

This gives them a disproportionate amount of control over the market as they are able to dump them at anytime.

This is not to mention the high proportion of bitcoins held by miners and exchanges, who may have perverse incentives to ensure that as many people buy up bitcoin as possible and hold it for long enough for the price to rise.

Is there any way to deal with the high degree of centralisation that Bitcoin has?

Well some of them are owned by people like : Mr. Satoshi Nakamoto who I do believe won't ever sell his coins since it's like the stability is based on the long term holders, plus the one's who actually care about bitcoins are actually an asset for us..

Rest some of them are lost coins as well, I remember loosing my wallet in like 2012 or something, even if it didn't have much but this is more common that we actually think and back in those days people did use websites, did free spins, did advertising and earned a lot as well, but the value was not that much and most of them have no idea where the coins are right now..

Other than that I do think we should be scared hands down for the people who are left and not in that category, all we can do is make laws ( but that can push bitcoins to centralization) and at the same time implement them making sure we are not risking centralization.

[DdmrDdmr]

This is from early 2021:
https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-whales-the-key-facts-figures-you-need-to-know-2021-1

If fact, the same was said in 2017:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/the-bitcoin-whales-1-000-people-who-own-40-percent-of-the-market

I’m not sure where the original source from the data comes from, not what it is backed by (nor why it hasn’t changed after four years).

The bitcoin rich list point to 2.151 addresses holding 41,83% of BTCs:
https://bitinfocharts.com/top-100-richest-bitcoin-addresses.html

Since we know that amongst the top richest addresses there are massive Exchange addresses, and that the percentage shown in those articles is nearly the same as the 41,83% I mentioned above, the articles (or their source) may have taken into their calculus the addresses of Exchanges, which would be incorrect.

Regardless, large whales surely have capacity to move things at their will, especially if they can find a fundamental that acts as a catalyst to boost their efforts. Certainly not ideal, and all you can do is buy some of them and hope that many do. The likeliness nevertheless is that weak hands will keep on caving-in into their strategy …

[Smartvirus]

Though 40% of the bitcoins are with 1000 individuals the market hasn't gone centralized.

Very news of you to point that at with first glance. Let's be guided before the wrong impression starts spreading around. Bitcoin has got zero centralization to it. Yeah, whales do have some certain influence on the market with the sentiments they provide but, its largely dependent on the perception of petty traders as well. They pull the string by passing an info on social media or using any means avial to them and the public plays along to make it happen. Should the public not play along, your most likely to have a fairly stable and consolidating market.

40% of bitcoin to have been owned by a set of 1000 individuals presumably whales doesn't mean they pull there resources together or something. It's nothingbof that nature and there is no centralization to bitcoin.

[ziyaaa]

I don't think that there is anything we can do about this subject. Because as you know, all people have the freedom of buying whatever amount of Bitcoin they would like. And this will never change in the future also. As a result, whales will continue to exist and will be able to manipulate the market with huge buy-sell activities. I respect everyone's opinion about this of course.

[wtsimis]

Whales control the whole ecosystem of crypto. They can create a huge influence to dump or pump. If we see other coins like xrp or solana's whales, a maximum of 5% of people are controlling the ecosystem. If they do anything contradictory decisions, the market would collapse, they pulled back the market. They make the market stable in its own way. From this concept, whales do what they need to do to make profits and also for the ecosystem.
You can read these articles: https://decrypt.co/78416/who-are-bitcoin-whales-how-do-they-trade
https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/how-whales-influence-the-price-of-bitcoin
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-crypto-whales-move-markets-nitin-kumar-

[Mahanton]

40% of all Bitcoins are owned by just 1000 individuals.

This gives them a disproportionate amount of control over the market as they are able to dump them at anytime.

This is not to mention the high proportion of bitcoins held by miners and exchanges, who may have perverse incentives to ensure that as many people buy up bitcoin as possible and hold it for long enough for the price to rise.

Is there any way to deal with the high degree of centralisation that Bitcoin has?

You should consider that most of those 1000 individuals which some of those are exchange wallets and also consider that there are wallets which are totally lost or been forgotten thats why i dont really believe about
being centraliized and asking about on how about the whales? Just let them be because even if they could really dump the market but doesnt mean that they do have the full control of it.
The community is big and as long there would be some demand then it could actually recover or move according into it.

[hatshepsut93]

The "%X of bitcoin are owned by 1000 people" is a meme at this point, because it's always different X that is being claimed - 40%, 90%, 99%. Because the truth is, no one did a good research about it. The thing about any wealth is that it will always be concentrated in the hands of the few, because once you get wealthy, it's easier to get even more wealthy.

I can't agree that Bitcoin's supply is centralized. Centralized is when one entity control 30%+. Satoshi only controls 1/21 of Bitcoin's supply and doesn't do anything with it.

[dothebeats]

The more bitcoin gains value, the harder it is for those who hold them to dump it at once. Some of those elite few may sell their bitcoins, but others who really want to hold it for some other reasons and not just profit will hold on to it. Besides, those whales will never offload coins at once, and they know so well that if they did, they will lose a lot of money and their bags will be useless.

Whales will exist no matter the environment, and there’s really nothing we can do to sway them.

[DarkDays]

40% of all Bitcoins are owned by just 1000 individuals.

This gives them a disproportionate amount of control over the market as they are able to dump them at anytime.

This is not to mention the high proportion of bitcoins held by miners and exchanges, who may have perverse incentives to ensure that as many people buy up bitcoin as possible and hold it for long enough for the price to rise.

Is there any way to deal with the high degree of centralisation that Bitcoin has?

No, there is nothing you/we can do about it. You can see the addresses but you don't know who they belong to and the great feature of Bitcoin is the ability to be fully decentralised so having a handful of people holding a large number of BTC is (I suppose) natural.

They have been incentivised by being early believers, and there's nothing you can do, they will dump and buy as they please - it is after all a free market and you must operate with this in mind.

[batang_bitcoin]

This is the same worry that what if satoshi wakes up and started moving those untouched bitcoins. Well, those are a million of bitcoins. And that's why you don't have to think about it. If they're going to dump, let them dump it. They deserve the profits that they'll take soon and what if they're also one of those early people that have bought bitcoin at a low price and believed on it and held it until now? They all have the rights to everything that they want to do with those bitcoins that they hold.

[lalabotax]

What to do with whales?

Nothing to do and we can't do anything to them.

Is there any way to deal with the high degree of centralisation that Bitcoin has?

Bitcoin is still decentralized, even they are owned by some parties mostly (or whales) it doesn't mean to be centralized, and they also may not be willing for centralization.
Just go on because the Bitcoin market is still very interesting and worthy whatever the condition and holders

[TinaK]

What to do with whales?

Nothing to do and we can't do anything to them.

Is there any way to deal with the high degree of centralisation that Bitcoin has?

Bitcoin is still decentralized, even they are owned by some parties mostly (or whales) it doesn't mean to be centralized, and they also may not be willing for centralization.
Just go on because the Bitcoin market is still very interesting and worthy whatever the condition and holders

Exactly and you are right.
Due to the limited supply of bitcoin, there is the possibility that there is someone who can play the market and that is what we called whales and there is nothing we can do at that point someday soon when bitcoin has increased the individual holders and those whales will hardly to manipulate the price because it will become more expensive. I don't think bitcoin has a centralization it just sometimes there is greed for people who want to have a benefit from bitcoin.

[Questat]

Don't get bothered your mind thinking about the whales, they already exist before you and the people who come first had accepted that be going to happen. It has to know that these whales are also investors, we don't control them nor do they also have control of the market. maybe they could give a huge impact on the market trend but it doesn't mean they make Bitcoin centralized.

40% of all Bitcoins are owned by just 1000 individuals.

It is an old figure, it never looks like that this time and I believe it was more than this number...might be triple.
Anyway, we don't have a concrete source of information that could prove as people wanted to keep anonymous rather than telling others.

[24Kt]

No, there is nothing you/we can do about it. You can see the addresses but you don't know who they belong to and the great feature of Bitcoin is the ability to be fully decentralised so having a handful of people holding a large number of BTC is (I suppose) natural.

They have been incentivised by being early believers, and there's nothing you can do, they will dump and buy as they please - it is after all a free market and you must operate with this in mind.

I don't know what OP is expecting here. But no one can dictate those whales what to do with their holdings. After all, we all have our own freedom what to do with our funds.  And besides, bitcoin is decentralized not a centralized coin, so he has no worries about this aspect of bitcoin. Even if we say, large portion is owned by 1k individuals or entities, still, it is not their interest to control the market. Also, the reason why we have this market performance is the supply and demand in play, now, if they will control it (but not gonna happen as I don't think they will be communicating with each other), I don't think we will have natural market demand.