In the cryptocurrency world, the word whale is used to refer to investors who hold such large sums in crypto that their actions can literally shake the market. This term comes from gambling: in casinos, a 'whale' is a very wealthy player making huge bets. In crypto, the analogy is obvious — a large player who can create a 'storm' with one movement.
Who qualifies as whales?
Whales can be divided into several categories:
1. Early investors and miners
Those who got into Bitcoin back in 2010-2012 and mined or bought tens of thousands of coins literally for pennies. Today, their assets are worth billions.
2. Crypto exchanges
Exchanges like Binance or Coinbase hold colossal volumes of coins in their wallets. Formally, they belong to users, but the management of the keys is with the centralized platform.
3. Institutional investors and funds
For example, MicroStrategy or Tesla. Their public purchases or sales of BTC immediately move the market.
4. Cryptocurrency funds and DAO structures
Decentralized organizations that accumulate large reserves of tokens to manage the ecosystem.
The influence of whales on the market
Why is there so much talk about whales? Because their actions can trigger a chain reaction:
Dumping the asset: if a whale sells several thousand BTC or ETH, the liquidity of the exchange may not withstand, and the price will drop sharply.
Buying up the asset: mass purchases, on the contrary, create hype, trigger FOMO, and the price skyrockets.
Manipulations: whales can intentionally 'pump' the price to force small investors to panic and sell their assets to them at a lower price.
Pump and dump: a classic scheme where an asset is first ramped up (pumped) and then suddenly dumped.
How are whales tracked?
Since the blockchain is transparent, movements of large wallets are tracked in real-time. There are even special services and Twitter bots: Whale Alert, Whale Bot, which publish transactions worth tens of millions of dollars.
When such notifications appear in the feed, traders immediately tense up — after all, the movement of 'big money' almost always promises consequences.
Whale and 'small fish'
It is important to understand the contrast. Most market participants are so-called 'shrimp', who have less than 1 BTC in their wallets. A whale can own 10,000 BTC or more. The difference in scale is enormous.
Interesting facts about whales
At the beginning of 2021, one anonymous whale transferred $1.1 billion in Bitcoin for a fee of just $4.
It is known that approximately 2% of addresses control over 90% of all bitcoins in circulation.
Some whales do not touch their wallets for years — such addresses are called 'sleeping'. When they suddenly wake up, the market trembles.
Conclusion
Whales are the 'invisible conductors' of the crypto market. Their trades rarely go unnoticed, and their moods can determine the fate of an entire asset. For the average investor, understanding the actions of whales is not only an interest in the backstage but also a survival tool.
One could even say: "When whales move — the waves affect everyone."
