Bitcoin for the rich: whales keep more than 45% of BTC and continue to accumulate

Bitcoin whales accounts that hold a significant amount of cryptocurrency control more than 45% of BTC supply and continue to buy coins, says the research from crypto analytics agency Glassnode. It turns out that they did not change their strategy despite the crypto winter. In total, their wallets now keep 8.69 million BTC!

According to the research, whales act aggressively and buy 140,000 BTC on average every month directly from the different exchanges. Thus, whale wallets now combined 45.6% of the total bitcoin supply or 8.69 million BTC.

By comparison, shrimp, users with less than one Bitcoin in their account, are adding at 36.75 BTC/month, which is 0.2% of the circulating supply and 1.36x monthly issuance. They now hold 1.12 million BTC in total.

Whales were actively buying coins from early April until late June when the price of Bitcoin reached the $20k range. Meanwhile, the accumulation rate has already exceeded the level of the second halves of 2020 and 2021 but lags behind the first half of 2021.

“The concentration of 8.69 million BTC, or 45.6%, of the total supply, can be considered a historical mark, which, judging by the trend and aggressive strategy of the main market players, can soon be overcome,” said Glassnode.

But not only whales are actively buying up bitcoins, but other market players are also doing it. Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of an investment management firm focused on cryptocurrencies Skybridge Capital, says that institutional investors are buying Bitcoin and Ethereum too.

Do they know something?