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So You’re Not a Bitcoin Whale – But What Kind of BTC Sea Creature Are You?

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Last updated: June 26, 2023 06:54 EDT

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper is a British journalist and features writer who has worked at Cryptonews.com since 2018. He has written for media outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, and Chosun Ilbo. He has also worked...

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Last updated:

June 26, 2023 06:54 EDT

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You’ve probably heard about the overarching influence of bitcoin (BTC) whales, but it turns out there are plenty more fish in the crypto sea – and they all have an impact on the health of the sector. Are you one of those hard-to-find whales after all, or are you a mere crypto ocean bottom feeder? It’s time to find out!

Per a report from the crypto analytics firm Glassnode, there is a whole undersea pecking order when it comes to bitcoin ownership:

If you own less than a bitcoin, sorry to break it to you, but Glassnode boffins say you are at the very bottom of the subaquatic food chain – a humble shrimp.
If you own anything between BTC 1 and 10 bitcoins, you get claws, and can be classed as a crab.
Eight-limbed octopi hold between 10 and 50 tokens, while you can consider yourself a fish if you hold between 50 and 100 tokens.
But to really move up the food chain, you will need anywhere between 100-500 bitcoins for much-coveted dolphin status.
Things start sounding truly badass when you get to the 500-1,000 bracket, however: This is when you become an official bitcoin shark.
Above that is the apex: Whale status. But it turns out that even whales have a hierarchy, too. To truly rule supreme over the seas, you will need over 5,000 bitcoins, which grants you premium humpback status.

And, in a blow for anyone in the lowly shrimp class, this category collectively owns less than 5% of the total share of bitcoin out there, while the whales own almost a third of all mined bitcoin, with humpbacks controlling around 40% of that figure.

Miners, meanwhile, hold almost a tenth of the total share, and exchanges are in possession of 12.7%.

But Glassnode opted to look on the bright side, with its co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Rafael Schultze-Kraft claiming on Twitter that “BTC ownership is much less concentrated than often reported,” adding that the report had also proved that it has in fact “dispersed over time.” He said that “whale supply has increased,” and added that this was a sign that “institutional investors” were “arriving.”

The report’s authors suggest that rather than claims that “2% of accounts” own 95% of all the BTC in circulation, the number was actually closer to 71%.

Analyst Willy Woo also took to Twitter to opine that the study provided proof that mainstream media claims that whales control bitcoin was “FUD.”

But one commenter suggested that a figure as high as 71% still proved whales were the dominant force in the bitcoin ocean, while another claimed that some whales could be bigger than first thought, stating that “a whale can have unlimited accounts.”
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