BTC whales are making a big splash in the market. On-chain data reveals that whales have continued to amass the primary cryptocurrency despite the recent slump in prices. Meanwhile, the “little guy” is also catching up and stashing more satoshis.

Whales Bought 100,000 BTC in a Month, Own Half the Supply

Whales have continued their BTC buying spree even during one of the most volatile periods in the market. According to Santiment data, BTC hoarders have used the last month to buy nearly 100,000 coins. In the last 25 days, whales have reportedly accumulated 90,000 BTC.

🐳 #Bitcoin addresses holding between 100 to 10,000 $BTC have accumulated 90,000 more $BTC in the last 25 days. They now hold a 7-week high of 9.11m $BTC, currently worth a total of $366.89 Billion at this time, and 48.7% of the total #Bitcoin supply. 🤯 https://t.co/5B2qmOW2lg pic.twitter.com/eJVSDlEFc3

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) June 16, 2021

Some of the cryptocurrency’s biggest investors now hold a seven-week high of 9.11 million bitcoins, which is equivalent to $367 billion. Santiment also noted that this sizeable amount represents 48.7% of the token’s circulation. 

Analysis of whales is crucial to crypto markets since their pump and dump activities can shift the price significantly. Typically, Bitcoin whales are categorized into a few groups. The most active whales own wallets with 100 to 10,000 bitcoins.

In the meantime, retail wallets have also increased their BTC stock. Wallets owning one BTC also known as sat stackers now hold nearly 5% of the total supply.

According to Glassnode, a blockchain analytics firm, there are four phases of BTC accumulation: the bear market accumulation, post-capitulation acceleration, macro-economic asset, and geopolitical asset. The firm reported that retail wallets had been stacking sats since the mid-2020s, which coincides with BTC accumulation entering its “macro-economic asset” phase.

Following El-Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender, the currency has finally reached the fourth phase and become a geopolitical asset.

Almost 99% of BTC Supply is Held by the Wealthiest 10% Addresses

Cryptocurrency intelligence platform Coinmetrics revealed that a large share of Bitcoin’s existing supply is owned by the wealthiest 10% addresses. As of 2021, the addresses in question own 18,559,085 coins, which represent 99.05% of the current circulation.

The wealthiest Bitcoin addresses are most likely owned by leading crypto exchanges and institutions. In the case of exchanges, one address is responsible for the assets of multiple retail investors who use hot wallets to receive and send Bitcoin.

Individuals falling into the wealthiest category are probably the earliest investors who bought the currency cheaply. It is also speculated, that some of the individuals and parties bunched into this group may have dormant wallets. This means that there are certain wallets with no transactional activity. 

Determining the owners of all the richest wallets can be difficult due to anonymity-related issues in the BTC network. However, these entities continue to remain vital to understanding the virtual currency’s price fluctuations.