Sometimes when there’s a huge drop in bitcoin’s price traders called “bitcoin whales” are blamed for dumping on the market. Bitcoin whales are individuals or groups who hold vast quantities of bitcoins and can sometimes sway the market towards their preferential price. These market movers have been around since the early days – ‘shaking out weak hands’ many times over the years – but have also failed their missions at times as well.
If you trade bitcoins or altcoins, you’ve probably heard the term “whale” before as the name is used to describe big cryptocurrency holders. The term is used this way because whales are the biggest creatures in the ocean and they can overpower smaller fish with their large size. Bitcoin whales are looked at similarly because their extensive holdings can affect large schools of smaller traders with just a few successful trading methods. Additionally the smaller the market and less liquidity means whales can devastate smaller altcoin markets way more easily than bitcoin. We also assume that Satoshi Nakamoto may be the biggest whale of all as the creator allegedly owns 1 million bitcoins.