Bitcoin Whales Are Going Through A ‘Generational’ Shift, CryptoQuant CEO Reveals

Keshav Verma

9 months ago

2 mins read

Reason to trust

Strict editorial policy that focuses on accuracy, relevance, and impartiality

Created by industry experts and meticulously reviewed

The highest standards in reporting and publishing

How Our News is Made

Strict editorial policy that focuses on accuracy, relevance, and impartiality

Ad discliamer

Morbi pretium leo et nisl aliquam mollis. Quisque arcu lorem, ultricies quis pellentesque nec, ullamcorper eu odio.

The CEO of the on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant has explained how the Bitcoin whales have been showing a shift in their Realized Cap recently.

New Bitcoin Whales Are About To Overtake Old Ones

In a new post on X, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju has discussed the recent trend in the Realized Caps of the new and old Bitcoin whales. The “Realized Cap” here is a model that calculates the total valuation of Bitcoin by assuming that each coin’s ‘true’ value in circulation is the price at which it was last transferred or sold on the blockchain.

The last transfer of any coin is likely the last point at which it changes hands, so the price at its time could be equated to its current cost basis. As such, the Realized Cap measures the sum of the cost basis of the BTC supply. Or, put another way, this metric keeps track of the total amount of capital the investors have put into BTC.

In the context of the current topic, the version of the Realized Cap that’s of interest is limited to just two segments of the market: the new and old whales.

Whales refer to entities carrying more than 1,000 coins in their wallets. This cohort is divided into two based on age using a 155-day cutoff. All whales bought within the past five months belong to the short-term holder or new whale cohort, while those who have been holding for longer than this duration are called the long-term holder or old whales.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the relative percentages of the Realized Cap contributed by these two Bitcoin groups:

Bitcoin Whale Realized Cap — The dominance of the new whales seems to have been on the up in recent years | Source: @ki_young_ju on X

As the above graph shows, the Realized Cap of the new Bitcoin whales wasn’t anything significant before 2018, indicating that veteran capital was king on the network. Following 2018, though, the percentage dominance of this group gradually started to show an improvement.

And this year, the growth in the Realized Cap of this cohort has blown up, with the metric’s value now sitting at $108 billion. For perspective, the indicator is standing at $113 billion for the old whales, which suggests the disparity between the two almost nonexistent.

“Bitcoin whales are experiencing a generational shift,” notes Young Ju, based on this trend. “Realized Cap of new whales is expected to surpass that of older whales soon.”

As for the sudden sharp growth in the Realized Cap of the new whales, it’s likely that the inflows into the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been falling in this category.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at around $62,200, down more than 2% over the past week.

Bitcoin Price Chart — The price of the coin appears to have seen a correction recently | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView

Featured image from Dall-E, CryptoQuant.com, chart from TradingView.com

Keshav Verma

Keshav is currently a senior writer at NewsBTC and has been attached to the website since June 14, 2021.

Keshav has been writing for many years, first as a hobbyist and later as a freelancer. He has experience working in a variety of niches, even fiction at one point, but the cryptocurrency industry has been the longest he has been attached to.

In terms of official educational qualifications, Keshav holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from one of the premier institutes of India, the University of Delhi (DU). He started the degree with an aim of eventually making a career in Physics, but the onset of COVID led to a shift in plans. The virus meant that the college classes had to be delivered in the online-mode and with it came free time for him to explore other passions.

Initially only seeking to make some beer money, Keshav unexpectedly landed clients offering real projects, after which there was no looking back. Writing was something he had always enjoyed and to be able to do it for a living was like a dream come true.

Keshav completed his Physics degree in 2022 and has been focusing on his writing career since, but that doesn’t mean his passion for Physics has ended. He eventually plans to re-enter university to obtain a masters degree in the same field, but perhaps only to satiate his own interest rather than for using it as a means to find employment..

Keshav has found blockchain and its concepts fascinating ever since he started going down the rabbit-hole back in 2020. On-chain analysis in particular has been something he likes to research more about, which is why his NewsBTC pieces tend to involve it in some form.

Being of the science background, Keshav likes if concepts are clear and consistent, so he generally explains the indicators he talks about in a bit of detail so that the readers can perhaps come out having understood and learnt something new.

As for hobbies, Keshav is super into football, anime, and videogames. He enjoys football not only as a watcher, but also as a player. For games, Keshav generally tends towards enjoying singleplayer adventures, with EA FC (formerly FIFA) being the only online game he is active in. Though, perhaps due to being ultra-focused on the game, he is today a semi-pro on the EA FC scene, regularly participating in tournaments and sometimes even taking back prize money.

Because of his enthusiasm for anime and games, he also self-learned Japanese along the way to consume some of the untranslated gems out there. The skill didn’t merely remain as just a hobby, either, as he put it to productive use during his exploration for small-time gigs at the start of COVID, fulfilling a couple of Japanese-to-English translation jobs.

Keshav is also big into fitness, with agility and acceleration-related workouts making a big part of his program due to the relevance they have in football. On top of that, he also has a more traditional strength based program for the gym, which he does to maintain an overall fitness level of his body.

Disclaimer: The information found on NewsBTC is for educational purposes only. It does not represent the opinions of NewsBTC on whether to buy, sell or hold any investments and naturally investing carries risks. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use information provided on this website entirely at your own risk.