Dormant Bitcoin whale holding 80K BTC could crush the market, analysts warn-Computerfanfield

Cryptocurrency analysts have warned that early adopting Bitcoin whales still have “plenty of clout” when it comes to dictating market prices.

Those behind Twitter-based transaction monitor @whale_alert have noted that an apparently dormant Bitcoin address houses almost 80,000 BTC ($750 million), and if the owner decides to sell them all, it could spell utter devastation for the industry.

“That address alone — if that is actually a whale who’s been holding their coins for so long without doing anything with them — if they decide, ‘Okay, let’s go sell them,’ it would crush the market completely,” Whale Alert told crypto prime dealer SFOX in a recent interview.

“But it’s really hard to say anything about the status of that address: Are those keys lost? Is that person even still alive? […] It’s just waiting to see if anything happens with those addresses,” they added.

A list of top dormant Bitcoin whale addresses (in which no outflowing Bitcoin has been detected in at least five years) can be found here .

The ‘Bitcoin whale effect’ has been demonstrated before

It’s plausible that the power of Bitcoin whales has been demonstrated recently. Whale Alert told SFOX that between August 29 and September 6 2018, a cryptocurrency whale unloaded around $1 billion worth of Bitcoin after they moved the funds from a single wallet to exchanges.

When most of the Bitcoin from the wallet was sold, the price of Bitcoin dramatically dropped by almost 15 percent, and the 30-day rolling volatility increased by almost 25 percent.

Another example is the recent closure of a darknet child abuse imagery ring in South Korea. Police confiscated a massive amount of Bitcoin from the perpetrators, which were eventually auctioned.

Whale Alert managed to track 10,000 BTC ($94 million) during the auction, which were likely sent to cryptocurrency exchange Binance for selling.

“Almost directly after that big transaction, the price of BTC dropped,” said Whale Alert. This seems to be corroborated by Binance‘s order book, which shows a rise in volume just a few hours after the auction.

An eventual BTC selloff drove the price of Bitcoin on Binance from $8062.56 to $7856.89.

It’s worth noting, however, that these kinds of movements are often localized to one particular exchange – in this case, Binance.

However, when such large, inactive Bitcoin addresses exist, one can’t help but wonder what the markets would look like if dormant whales one day awoke with a sudden urge to capitulate.

You can read the rest of the Whale Alert interview here .

Satoshi Nakaboto: ‘Winklevoss deal brings BTC trade to Samsung users in US and Canada’

Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day.

Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Stephen Hawking used to say: Let’s get this bread!

Bitcoin price

We closed the day, May 28 2020, at a price of $9,525. That’s a respectable 3.71 percent increase in 24 hours, or $340. It was the highest closing price in eight days.

We’re still 52 percent below Bitcoin‘s all-time high of $20,089 (December 17 2017).

Bitcoin market cap

Bitcoin’s market cap ended the day at $175,161,235,290. It now commands 67 percent of the total crypto market.

Bitcoin volume

Yesterday’s volume of $34,367,073,114 was the highest in six days, 50 percent above last year’s average, and 53 percent below the lastyear’s high. That means that yesterday, the Bitcoin network shifted the equivalent of 619 tons of gold.

Bitcoin transactions

A total of 151,015 transactions were conducted yesterday, which is 52 percent below last year’s average and 66 percent below last year’s high.

Bitcoin transaction fee

Yesterday’s average transaction fee concerned $1.30. That’s $2.60 below last year’s high of $3.91.

Bitcoin distribution by address

As of now, there are 13,420 Bitcoin millionaires, or addresses containing more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin.

Furthermore, the top 10 Bitcoin addresses house 5.2 percent of the total supply, the top 100 14.7 percent, and the top 1000 34.9 percent.

Company with a market cap closest to Bitcoin

With a market capitalization of $175 billion, Toyota has a market capitalization most similar to that of Bitcoin at the moment.

Bitcoin’s path towards $1 million

On November 29 2017 notorious Bitcoin evangelist John McAfee predicted that Bitcoin would reach a price of $1 million by the end of 2020.

He even promised to eat his own dick if it doesn’t. Unfortunately for him it’s 97.3 percent behind being on track. Bitcoin‘s price should have been $350,654 by now, according to dickline.info.

Bitcoin energy consumption

Bitcoin used an estimated 156 million kilowatt hour of electricity yesterday. On a yearly basis that would amount to 57 terawatt hour. That’s the equivalent of Bangladesh’s energy consumption or 5.3 million US households. Bitcoin’s energy consumption now represents 0.25% of the whole world’s electricity use.

Bitcoin on Twitter

Yesterday 38,537 fresh tweets about Bitcoin were sent out into the world. That’s 99.3 percent above last year’s average. The maximum amount of tweets per day last year about Bitcoin was 82,838.

Satoshi Nakaboto: ‘Bitcoin edging closer to $12K again’

Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day.

Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Stephen Hawking used to say: Fight the power!

Bitcoin price

We closed the day, August 30 2020, at a price of $11,711. That’s a minor 1.76 percent increase in 24 hours, or $202. It was the highest closing price in five days.

We’re still 41 percent below Bitcoin‘s all-time high of $20,089 (December 17 2017).

Bitcoin market cap

Bitcoin‘s market cap ended the day at $216,373,660,045. It now commands 60 percent of the total crypto market.

Bitcoin volume

Yesterday’s volume of $19,760,127,945 was the highest in one day, 13 percent below last year’s average, and 73 percent below last year’s high. That means that yesterday, the Bitcoin network shifted the equivalent of 314 tons of gold.

Bitcoin transactions

A total of 268,158 transactions were conducted yesterday, which is 16 percent below last year’s average and 40 percent below last year’s high.

Bitcoin transaction fee

Yesterday’s average transaction fee concerned $1.49. That’s $2.42 below last year’s high of $3.91.

Bitcoin distribution by address

As of now, there are 18,746 Bitcoin millionaires, or addresses containing more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin.

Furthermore, the top 10 Bitcoin addresses house 4.9 percent of the total supply, the top 100 14.2 percent, and the top 1000 34.8 percent.

Company with a market cap closest to Bitcoin

With a market capitalization of $216 billion, Merck & Co has a market capitalization most similar to that of Bitcoin at the moment.

Bitcoin’s path towards $1 million

On November 29 2017 notorious Bitcoin evangelist John McAfee predicted that Bitcoin would reach a price of $1 million by the end of 2020.

He even promised to eat his own dick if it doesn’t. Unfortunately for him it’s 100.0 percent behind being on track. Bitcoin‘s price should have been $552,113 by now, according to dickline.info.

Bitcoin energy consumption

On a yearly basis Bitcoin now uses an estimated 68 terawatt hour of electricity. That’s the equivalent of Czech Republic’s energy consumption.

Bitcoin on Twitter

Yesterday 27,893 fresh tweets about Bitcoin were sent out into the world. That’s 35.6 percent above last year’s average. The maximum amount of tweets per day last year about Bitcoin was 82,838.