The number of Bitcoin whale addresses on the blockchain has increased 3.8% year-to-date, and has now reached a year-high of 152,936.
The number of Bitcoin (BTC) whale addresses reached a year-high of 152,936 on December 4, representing increases of 5,541 BTC whale addresses (+3.8%) year-to-date (YTD). This comes in the wake of centralized cryptocurrency exchange FTX ’s collapse, after it halted customer withdrawals on November 8.
While the number of BTC and ETH whale addresses have generally been on an upwards trend this year, the spike post-FTX collapse might reflect a combination of whales moving funds off centralized cryptocurrency exchanges into self-custody, and simultaneously buying the dip to increase their cryptocurrency holdings.
On November 6, Binance CEO’s tweet about exiting FTT, the utility token of FTX, marking the start of FTX customers rushing to withdraw their funds. At the time, the number of BTC whale addresses was 150,792 (+2.3% YTD).
By the time FTX stopped withdrawals on November 8, the number of BTC whale addresses had increased by 420, or up 0.3% from November 6, to 151,212 (+2.6% YTD). This might have been largely due to whales joining the retreat into self-custody.
Since then, the number of BTC whale addresses dipped below the November 8 threshold once – on November 10, the number of BTC whale addresses was at 150,988, which represented a decrease of 224 BTC whale addresses but was still up YTD by 2.4%. This drop in whale addresses happened as the price of BTC tumbled, falling from $20,598 to a low of $15,742 between November 8 and 10.
Following the collapse of FTX, the number of BTC whale addresses saw its highest day-on-day (DoD) increase of 0.2% on November 23, to reach 152,583 (+3.5% YTD).
As of December 4, the number of BTC whale addresses had grown by 2,144 (+1.4%) since November 6, and 1,724 (+1.1%) since November 8.
Similarly, the number of Ethereum whale addresses rose 11.5%, setting a new 2022 record of 47,540
The number of Ethereum (ETH) whale addresses achieved a year-high of 47,540 on December 4, representing an increase of 4,886 ETH whale addresses (+11.5%) YTD. Compared to key dates in FTX’s collapse, the number of ETH whale addresses had grown by 2,332 (+5.2%) since November 6, and 2,036 (+4.5%) since November 8.
At the start of the FTX collapse on November 6, the number of ETH whale addresses stood at 45,208 (+6.0% YTD). 137 ETH whale addresses were added on November 7, followed by another 159 the next day. By November 8 when FTX withdrawals were halted, the number of ETH whale addresses had increased by a total of 296, or up 0.7% since November 6, to 45,504 (+6.7% YTD).
In contrast to the drop in the number of BTC whale addresses on November 10, the number of ETH whale addresses was up by 487 or 1.1% from November 8, to 45,991 (+7.8% YTD).
The number of ETH whale addresses saw its highest post-FTX collapse DoD increase of 0.5% on November 13, to reach 46,481 (+9.0% YTD).
After FTX's collapse, the number of whale addresses on the blockchain increased at least 4X faster than its yearly average
The number of whale addresses increased at a relatively faster rate post-FTX collapse than the rest of the year, reversing the trend of a slight drop in the number of whale addresses since September. The number of BTC whale addresses increased at a daily average rate of 64 addresses per day from November 8 to December 4, which was more than four times the daily average rate of 15 addresses per day between January 1 to December 4.
Similarly, the number of ETH whale addresses increased at a daily average rate of 75 addresses per day during the period of November 8 to December 4, which was more than five times the daily average rate of 14 addresses per day between January 1 to December 4.
Methodology
The study examined the number of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) wallet addresses that are considered ‘whales’, defined as having more than or equal to 10 BTC ($212,820), or more than or equal to 100 ETH ($162,600) respectively. The conversion rates referred to are as of November 6, whereby 1 BTC is equivalent to $21,282 and 1 ETH is equivalent to $1,626. The data was taken from Glassnode, for the period of January 1 to December 4.
All dates stated above are in 2022.
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Looking for more information on what happened with FTX? Check out this roundup we did that charts the contagion effects of FTX's collapse.
Yuqian is a cryptocurrency writer and marketer who specializes in mainstream cryptocurrency insights. She's especially fascinated by the philosophical and socioeconomic aspects of crypto and also goes by the name of Q. She holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences with Honors from the National University of Singapore. Follow the author on Twitter @solosbrqt
