Who Are the Biggest NFT Whales?
The top 20 biggest NFT whales have portfolios worth $4.29 million and above, from Ethereum NFTs alone. Their valuable portfolios mean that the 20 biggest NFT whales are all NFT millionaires, despite the ongoing NFT bear market.
The top NFT whale is SethS, who has a portfolio valued at 11,748 ETH, or $19.23 million at the time of writing. Wilcox, the second richest NFT whale, follows closely behind with a portfolio valued at 11,336 ETH or $18.55 million.
Notably, however, even the top NFT whales on Ethereum have yet to reach billionaire status.
Top NFT Whales vs Top NFT Traders
4 of the top 20 NFT whales also ranked among the top 15 NFT traders. The pseudonymous SethS leads as both the top NFT whale and trader. Similarly, another pseudonymous figure Mr.703 is in third place for both rankings.
In other words, SethS and Mr.703 are possibly among the most successful early NFT investors, with a good balance between taking profits and holding onto blue chip NFTs.
On the other hand, second largest whale Wilcox ranks lower as an NFT trader, with more modest realized trading profits. Whereas smaller NFT whale Punks OTC is the second most profitable NFT trader. This perhaps highlights the two different NFT investing strategies, with Wilcox focusing more on long-term appreciation and Punks OTC prioritizing taking profits.
What NFTs Do the Top NFT Whales Own?
Almost all of the top NFT whales’ valuable portfolios are from holding CryptoPunks. For 18 of the top 20 NFT whales, the blue chip pixel NFT collection accounts for at least half of the portfolio value.
Many of these NFT whales are considered CryptoPunks ‘OGs’, having participated in the collection’s minting. In particular, Wilcox currently has the most number of CryptoPunks at 215, while SethS has a significant holding of 668 CryptoPunks V1s.
The only exceptions are Machi Big Brother and JRNY Crypto, who rank among the top NFT whales due to Yuga Labs’ flagship Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). Machi achieved his NFT whale ranking with 135 BAYCs, while JRNY Crypto (or Tony) holds 103 BAYCs. Neither one holds any CryptoPunks in their portfolios, at the time of writing.
Machi stands out too for being the only whale estimated to have lost money from his NFT investments, unlike the other 19 biggest NFT whales. The controversial influencer has an estimated total profit and loss (PnL) of around -6,776 ETH, mostly in unrealized losses.
Who Are the Biggest NFT Collectors?
Out of the top 20 NFT whales, 7 are also big collectors with over 1,000 NFTs each in their whale portfolios: SethS, Wilcox, Mr.703, Gary Vaynerchuk, Machi, ddaavvee and JRNY Crypto. For example, NFT whale ddaavvee holds an extensive 4,872 NFTs in their athrab.eth address, which could offer interesting insights on collecting NFTs.
5 of the top 20 NFT whales have unusually diverse portfolios, with NFTs from over 60 Ethereum collections each. ddaavvee again has the most diversity with over 202 different collections, followed by Machi holding 101 different collections. In comparison, the average number of different NFT collections held by the top NFT whales is around 34.
On the other hand, 7 NFT whales hold just 6 to 8 different NFT collections in their portfolios.
Top 20 NFT Whales on Ethereum
The top Ethereum NFT whales ranked by estimated portfolio value, converted to USD (1 ETH traded at approximately $1,636 at the time of writing on September 19, 2023):
| Ranking | NFT Whale | Portfolio Value (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SethS | $19.23 million |
| 2 | Wilcox (@Wilcox_NFT) | $18.55 million |
| 3 | Mr.703 | $12.83 million |
| 4 | Sov (@unrealSov) | $12.36 million |
| 5 | 0x26f7..4de6 | $11.85 million |
| 6 | Gary Vaynerchuck (@garyvee) | $9.16 million |
| 7 | 0x4084..f4b5 | $8.39 million |
| 8 | 0x31a5..6e23 | $8.20 million |
| 9 | 0x7174..2af2 | $7.62 million |
| 10 | Machi (@machibigbrother) | $7.45 million |
| 11 | Punks OTC (@punksOTC) | $7.36 million |
| 12 | ddaavvee | $6.72 million |
| 13 | Mabu (@mb__nft) | $6.32 million |
| 14 | Tony (@JRNYcrypto) | $5.67 million |
| 15 | 0x7760..ff0f | $5.65 million |
| 16 | 0x062c..0fcd | $5.63 million |
| 17 | PB | $5.01 million |
| 18 | Kenney | $4.92 million |
| 19 | 0x4d8e..33b5 | $4.84 million |
| 20 | Anderson (@FridaHodlPonkz) | $4.29 million |
Methodology
The study examined Ethereum NFT whales’ portfolio value according to the NFTGo leaderboard, as of September 18, 2023. The NFTGo leaderboard ranks whale addresses with NFT portfolios of at least $1 million estimated value.
Highly related addresses, identified by NFTGo from the number of receives and sends, were investigated for belonging to the same whale, and grouped together where relevant. Whales with no identifiable names or pseudonyms on OpenSea and Twitter were referred to by their primary address.
This study is for illustrative and informational purposes only, and is not financial advice. Always do your own research and be careful when putting your money into any crypto or financial asset.
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Curious to find out more about our previous research studies & statistics? Check out this one we did on top friend.tech accounts’ royalty earnings.
Yuqian is a crypto research analyst at CoinGecko, covering a range of topics from NFTs to ETFs, crypto adoption and interest, and beyond. She's especially fascinated by the philosophical and socioeconomic aspects of crypto. She holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences with Honors from the National University of Singapore. Follow the author on Twitter @solosbrqt
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