Bitcoin’s (BTC/USD) about 60% surge in November cannot be attributed to the massive accumulation by institutions and individuals, as the narrative emerges that the ownership of the most favorite digital asset continues to remain in the hands of a few whales, Bloomberg reports, citing data from the researcher Flipside Crypto.
The research firm notes that about 2% of the anonymous ownership accounts control 95% of Bitcoin holdings. That structure points to the risk of big price swings if major investors offload some of their stakes.
Additional details
“A further breakdown shows that whales own 92.4% of the 2%, while crypto exchanges account for nearly 7%.”
“Exchanges accounted for 7.7% a year ago, while whales accounted for 92.3% of the biggest holders.”
Eric Stone, Head of data science at Flipside, said: “The story is that as the price has surged upwards lately, the concentration in the hands of the largest accounts has also risen” since July.”
“While whales continue to be a significant force behind the overall BTC market, it is always challenging to ascribe a narrative to a particular price swing. The most likely whale story today is that they’ll cautiously liquidate relatively small amounts of BTC over time, rather than risking a supply shock by liquidating larger chunks all at once,” Stone added.
Responding to the above Bloomberg story, via Twitter, Nouriel Roubini, an American economist nicknamed "Dr Doom" for his pessimistic predictions, said that “inequality Gini coefficient of Bitcoin is worse than the one of North Korea.”
2% of accounts control 95% of bitcoin assets. Inequality Gini coefficient of Bitcoin is worse than the one of North Korea where Mr Kim and his cronies controls most of the country assets!
— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) November 28, 2020
Bitcoin Whales’ Ownership Concentration Is Rising During Rally https://t.co/cXbw5yC63R
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