Bitcoin Shark & Whale Wallets Shatter Records, Surge to 20,031—Here’s What It Means for the Market
A critical warning signal has flashed across Bitcoin's network as on-chain data reveals a historic surge in large-entity accumulation. The population of shark and whale wallets has just smashed previous records, climbing to 20,031—a clear indicator of a massive and sustained influx of institutional and high-net-worth capital that could dramatically reshape the market's supply dynamics.
Bitcoin Sharks & Whales Are Sitting At A Record Count
According to data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment, there are currently a record number of Bitcoin investors holding over 100 tokens. The indicator cited by Santiment is the “Supply Distribution,” which tells us about the total amount of addresses that currently belong to a given wallet group.
Addresses are divided into these cohorts based on the number of coins that they are carrying in their balance. The 1 to 10 coins group, for example, includes all investors owning between 1 and 10 BTC. Now, here is the chart for the Bitcoin Supply Distribution shared by Santiment that shows the trend in its value for three ranges: 0 to 1, 1 to 100, and 100+ coins:
As shown in the graph above, the Bitcoin Supply Distribution has increased for the 100+ BTC and 0 to 1 BTC cohorts since mid-2024, indicating growth among both the largest and smallest investors. The 1 to 100 coins group, however, has shown the opposite trajectory in this window; addresses of this size have seen their population shrink.
At the current exchange rate, the bottom and top ends of the 1 to 100 coins cohort convert to $72,000 and $7.2 million, respectively. Given this size, the holders belonging to the group would be the mid-sized entities that carry more power than the retail traders, but are still not too relevant when compared to the largest holders. Today, there are 954,000 addresses falling inside this tier.
The reduction in the count of these investors could partly be a result of promotion/demotion to the other cohorts. Either way, the trend would suggest that the holder base has become more concentrated on the extreme top and bottom ends recently. Following the growth in the 100+ coins cohort, large investors have seen their population jump to 20,031 BTC, which is a new all-time high (ATH). This range includes two of the key Bitcoin investor groups popularly dubbed as the sharks and whales.
From the chart, it’s visible that the Bitcoin sharks and whales saw a slight overall downtrend between 2017 and 2024. Something changed in mid-2024, however, with big-money interest once again pouring back into the cryptocurrency. So far, the new uptrend has been maintained, but it only remains to be seen whether the 100+ coins range will continue to grow in the near future or if it will find stability once more.
Just like how the large investors have seen their population reach new highs recently, the retail traders are also sitting at a record. Currently, their Supply Distribution has a value of 57.6 million, far eclipsing that of the other groups.
BTC Price
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $72,400, up over 2.5% in the last seven days.
