Have you ever asked yourself of which factors or organizations affected to bitcoin price? It is naive to believe that those big deals of cryptocurrency trading are merely following supply and demand principle of the market. In practice, there always exist groups of people or organizations holding a large amount of bitcoin whose are capable to dominate and control the price of bitcoin as they want. These people or organizations are called “sharks”.
The biggest sharks who owned Bitcoin in the world
Up to now, there are about 23 million active bitcoin wallets with the total capitalization of $200 billion. However, the distribution between wallets and theis values are distinct.
According to ChainAlysis’s report, there are over 1,600 BTC investors capitalizing about $37 billion, counting 1/3 of total amount of BTC mined worldwide. These people are considered “sharks” in crypto market who owned at least 1000 BTC each. The detail is:
- 1633 wallets, each owned 1000 – 10,000 BTC, worth $22.8 billion.
- 121 wallets, each owned 10,000 – 100,000 BTC, worth $20 billion.
- 3 wallets, each owned 100,000 – 1,000,000 BTC, worth $2 billion.
These kinds of shark might be a person or an exchange centre / investment fund who held bitcoin since it had been mined in 2009. Certainly, no one wants to confess he or she is standing on a gold mine unless they wish to attract hackers. Therefore, the identities of these sharks are still hidden to the world. However, most of users in crypto market know about the most famous sharks, as follow:
Satoshi Nakamoto
The mysterious father of Bitcoin is considered to hold 980,000 BTC that he mined at the early days of bitcoin market. In other words, Nakamoto owned an asset of $6 billion since 2009. Although, up to now his BTC have no sign of operating, causing the curiosityfrom investors in the market.
The Winklevoss twins
The Co-founders of Geminicrypto Exchange, and also the pioneers in the cryptocurrency revolution, owned an amount of bitcoin that is equivalent to $11 million in 2011. Up to now, the value of that amount has been multiplied many times, making the twin become aggressive sharks in crypto market.
Tim Draper
This famous speculator grew as a shining star in the market, after the government auction even taken place in 2014 which he bought 30,000 BTC. Of course the BTC’s price at that time was not a big problem. But now those coins cost a huge fortune.
Barry Silbert
The founder of Digital Currency Group – one of the most well-known investment fund in cryptocurrency network, is seen as a shark who owned the biggest amount of bitcoin. He bought around 48,000 BTC in the U.S government auction held in 2014. Those coins are $350 million worth now.
Uncle Sam
Ignoring the unclear regulations in cryptocurrence ownership, U.S government is considered to hold thousands of BTC, acquired through major criminal raids. Up to now, Uncle Sam still holds crypto auctions to obtain significant amounts of cash.
The individuals and organizations are called sharks not only because of holding big amounts of BTC in the market. Above all, they own the whole characteristics of the sharks, one of the most deadly warriors in the ocean that are ready to destroy anything disturbing the way they go ahead. To this day, there are enough evidences to proof the manipulation activities of this group in the market. Holding such a large amount of coin allows them to handle the price of bitcoin up and down as they want. As the consequence, they can make small investors confuse and thus earn huge profits.
How do the sharks manipulate Bitcoin price?
“Rinse and repeat” is the most popular method for the sharks to manipulate crypto market in order to get huge profit. Accordingly, they used to place huge amount of selling orders of cryptocurrency at lower price than the reference price of the market. Using the FOMO syndrome of the crowd, these crafty sharks make small investors or sellers feel scared and reduce the selling price lower than the shark’s price. The sharks just wait until the whole price of the market drop down simultaneously, and buy back.
Similarly, when the sharks want to push the price up high, they place a huge amount of buying orders, waiting for the small fishes to get into the trap of net of high price buying. The fierce sharks will then sell the coins to get a huge profit. The sharks are usually organizations rather than individuals, with a powerful budget that strong enough to push up until the expected price achieved. Generally, by building up the wall of buy and sell like that, it’s easy to recognize who are the victims of the shark’s hunting raids.
Therefore, the crypto investors or speculator in the market need to equip and prepare themselves with suitable knowledges, skills and experiences to trading cryptocurrency effectively. Besides, for most of us who are the small and retail fishes in the market, careful observation and attention are required to avoid being the poor victims of the sharks.
Azcoinnews | Remitano