Who Are the Biggest Bitcoin Whales?
One may surprise you ....
Just returned from a business trip to Dallas. It’s said they do everything big in Texas. It’s a sort of adjective, actually: “Texas-big.” Then there’s the phrase, “rich, really rich, and Texas-rich.”
You get the point. They do things in a big way in Texas.
It got me wondering if there were any huge Bitcoin whales in Texas. None came to mind, but pretty much everyone is aware that Texas is a huge center of Bitcoin mining, mostly using renewable energy sources.
So, while researching the largest Bitcoin whales in the world, I encountered a surprise or two.
The top Bitcoin wallet in the world, holding over 1.1 million Bitcoins, belongs of course to Satoshi Nakamoto. That wasn’t a surprise. The coins today are worth around $32 billion. The remarkable thing about Satoshi’s holdings is that they haven’t moved. None have been sold. Nobody can accuse Satoshi of pre-mining and absconding with the profits. Like, um, Ethereum, say.
The other top holders can fluctuate from time to time, but right now it is believed by most Bitcoin on-chain analysts that the country of Bulgaria is, or was, the world’s second largest Bitcoin whale. That’s right, Bulgaria. How many Bitcoiners could find Bulgaria on a map? Not sure I could.
In 2017, the country orchestrated a crackdown on organized crime and ended up seizing 213,519 coins. That would be worth an estimated $6 billion. It can’t be verified for certain if the country is still HODLing their stack, however.
The third largest holder, quite possibly, is the US government. Counting Bitcoin seized during the 2013 Silk Road bust and also the coins grabbed from the Bitfinex hack in 2016, it is believed that the US government now holds 205,500 Bitcoins. That one really surprised me anyway. Thanks to Glassnode for the chart of these holdings and to Will Clemente III for the Twitter post:
https://twitter.com/WClementeIII/status/1651632042335952897
These holdings are worth in the neighborhood of $6 billion. What remains to be seen, however, is if the USA will be HODLers or not. It is usually the policy of the US governent to sell off assets and convert them to cash. Usually. Bitcoin seems to be the exception.
It should be noted that any smash selling of large quantities of coins, by the US, Bulgaria or another whale, could cause extreme short-term price concerns for Bitcoin.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss were among the first real Bitcoin whales. From the proceeds of their settlement with Mark Zuckerberg over the founding of Facebook, they spent a reported $11 million on Bitcoin. That was back in 2013. It is believed that they hold, or have held, about one percent of the Bitcoins in existence. That would make the Harvard grad twins, former Olympic rowers, worth a few billion dollars each.
MicroStrategy, a publicly-held US company, at this time holds 132,500 Bitcoins. That represents about .6% of all Bitcoins that will ever be created. That’s an awful lot for one company. Indeed, the company’s stock price fluctuates with almost perfect correlation to the price of Bitcoin. CEO Michael Saylor is one of the world’s biggest Bitcoin proponents and has continued to buy, whether prices are high or low.
MicroStrategy’s cost basis currently sits at around $29,000 per coin, so their $4 billion holdings are hovering at the breakeven point. Much of the MSTR Bitcoin holdings are leveraged, and Saylor vows to continue to invest all excess corporate cash in Bitcoin. He’s a mega-bull, for sure.
Which whales will HODL? Which ones will sell? My bet is that Saylor, Cameron and Tyler are in Bitcoin for the long haul. Bulgaria may have already sold. The US government will probably sell first. US regulatory agencies have not been open to Bitcoin use and have been outright hostile to other crypto platforms. In addition, they’re planning to launch a government CBDC. Given those actions, it would seem inconsistent to hold 205,500 Bitcoins for very long. There may be some sell-side pressure coming. But it won’t last.
Bitcoin Tools, Platforms, Podcasts:
Twitter - Follow The Bitcoin Files on Twitter at @BitcoinNewslet1 for all of my articles, commentary and links to my contributions to Bitcoin Magazine.
Medium - Check out my writings on Medium, including articles not featured in the newsletter. Join my 600 other followers who read and write about crypto. medium.com/@rickmulvey
Podcasts - To hear the top names in Bitcoin, and learn more than you could imagine, check out The Pomp Podcast with Anthony Pompliano, What Bitcoin Did with Peter McCormack, and The Wolf of All Streets Podcast with Scott Melker.
Issue No. 106, April 28, 2023
Rick Mulvey is a CPA, crypto consultant, and frequent contributor to Bitcoin Magazine. He writes about all things Bitcoin, and yells at the Yankees and Giants. He also runs marathons and makes wine, neither professionally.
We always forget that Bulgaria chose to HODL its Bitcoin and that the country is one of the biggest known HODLers. Unlike America, which is making a major mistake by selling the Bitcoin it holds as a result of various seizures!