Let’s talk about whales, Bitcoin whales, to be exact.

“Whales,” What are they? Well, they happen to be entities that own very large amounts of cryptocurrency, usually Bitcoin. For most of their title existence, they have been known as a source of anxiety and contemplation. What are the exact impact of these so called “whales?” Let’s take a look.

Chainalaysis conducted a study that took 32 of the biggest whales known to traders and examined them. Of the 32 whales, they encompassed what is estimated to be more than 1 million of the estimated 15 million Bitcoins mined in existence. To give you a better idea on the scale of the study, the smallest whale held 12,000 Bitcoin while the biggest held almost over 90,000 Bitcoin. Do the math on those prices, even with the market, that isn't chump change.

They have went ahead and titled these whales and organised them in four different categories. These four classified categories are the trader whales, the miner/early adopter whales, the lost whales, and the criminal whales. About 32 whales fall into these four categories.

What is interesting about this number game is that 9 out of the “trader whales” mentioned above entered the cryptocurrency realm in its earlier stages of 2017, who are currently actively buying and selling. Contrary to popular belief, the trader whales have typically been buyers not sellers when Bitcoin’s price dips and there is no evidence of them controling the market price.

Traders that gather vast amounts of Bitcoin during a time where it was inexpensive and relatively simple to mine coins are called “miner whales.” These individuals have been around since the start of the game and usually have no intention on selling their Bitcoin until the market see’s a massive spike.

Whales that have gathered their Bitcoins in the pioneer days when Bitcoin was a term used only by a few individuals, but have zero wallet activity which would insinuate they either passed away or lost access to their wallets all together. These whales would be called the “lost whales”. Lost whales form another large with five wallets holding over 212,000 coins, worth approximately $1.3 billion.

Criminal whales are the smallest category of whales, with over 125,000 coins and just short of $790 million in asset value. Two of these whales were identified as being part of the Silk Road operation, and others have been implicated in money laundering cases.

While the aura surrounding these mysterious Bitcoin whales might trigger our imagination, they are not to blamed for the big impact on the market, as many believe.