Bitcoin's Bull Run Gets A Boost From Whale Accumulators, But Retail Still The King In Ownership

Bitcoin’s BTC/USD record-breaking run to $106,000 has been considerably boosted by a spurt in whale investor holdings, on-chain data revealed Sunday, although retail continued to control the majority supply.

What Happened: Since the bull rally commenced on Oct. 10, there has been a net increase of 1,582 more wallets holding at least 100 BTC, blockchain analysis firm Santiment reported on X.

The jump, from 16,072 to 17,644, over nine weeks, reflected a gain of nearly 10%. In the same period, Bitcoin rallied by 77%.

🥳 Bitcoin has climbed to $106.5K for the first time in its 16+ year history. Since the bull rally began back on October 10th, there has been a net increase of 1,582 more wallets that hold at least 100 BTC, a jump of +9.9% more wallets in the relatively short period of time! pic.twitter.com/261LfRd776
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) December 16, 2024

Additional data from IntoTheBlock indicated that large holders owned about 12% of Bitcoin’s supply. The term “large holders” refers to those addresses that hold more than 1% of the supply, also called whales, and those who hold between 0.1% and 1% of the supply.

On the whole, all the whales together accounted for just 1.25% of the total supply. Retail investors, on the other hand, owned 88%.

Cohort	Holding Threshold Per Investor	Share Of Total Bitcoin Supply
Whales	Over 1% BTC	1.25%
Investors	Between 0.1%-1% BTC	10.42%
Retail	Less than 0.1% BTC	88.33%

In contrast, Ethereum ETH/USD and Dogecoin DOGE/USD had far bigger whale share, 43.50%, and 41.74%, respectively.

Why It Matters: Typically, high supply concentration points to low decentralization, as few wealthy investors cornering a disproportionate share of supply could result in market manipulation.

If these players hold a large enough portion, they could act maliciously to the expense of retail, potentially selling and crashing an asset’s price.

However, with Bitcoin’s whale dominance still at very low levels, such a possibility looked highly unlikely.

The leading digital asset has been on a record-breaking spree over the past month, pushing well beyond $100,000 to reach unprecedented levels.

Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $104,990.72, up 2.70% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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