These Investor Cohorts Aggressively Accumulate Bitcoin Following FTX Debacle: Analytics Firm

Key Insights

• Shrimp and crab BTC holders have increased their holdings after the FTX collapse.
• The increase in accumulation has therefore led to record-high BTC balances. 
• Bitcoin whales have decreased their holdings in the last 30 days.

Since Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin in 2009, several investors have bought and kept the token in their wallets. Unarguably, Bitcoin is the largest-owned crypto token leading to the crypto boom. Since then, the industry has unveiled a new ranking chart of Bitcoin holders. 

Some of these rankings include; 

• Shrimp: It comprises holders with less than 1BTC.
• Crab: holders with 1 to 10 BTC
• Octopus: holders with 10 to 50 BTC
• Fish: holders with 50 to 100 BTC
• Dolphin: holders with 100 to 500 BTC
• Shark: holders with 500 to 1000 BTC
• Whale: holders with more than 1000 BTC
• Humpback: holders with 5000 BTC

Interestingly, the FTX collapse has led more shrimp and crab BTC holders to increase their holdings. The increase in accumulation has therefore led to record-high BTC balances. 

Bitcoin Accumulation Surges

Shortly after the FTX collapse, a Glassnode analyst revealed that Bitcoin holders— who hold between <1 BTC and up to 10 BTC had increased their holdings. These investors now hold about 1.21 million BTC, equivalent to 6.3% of the entire Bitcoin. 

Similarly, “crab BTC holders” who own between 1 to 10  BTC increased their holdings shortly after the FTX collapse. They added about 191,600 BTC over the last month. Significantly, the shrimps and crabs purchases in November signified an all-time-high balance increase. 

Furthermore, at the beginning of November, Bitcoin traded above $21,000. However, in the last week of the same month, it dropped to $16,000, signifying the lowest in two years. This decline is related to the FTX crisis that affected blockchain firms such as Gemini, BlockFi, and Genesis Global. 

Whales’ BTC Holding Decreases

One would expect that since “small scale BTC investors” like shrimps and crabs are increasing the Bitcoin in their portfolio — whales that own more than 100 BTC (each) would also increase their holdings. 

However, the Glassnode report shows that the whales constitute the primary investors offloading their BTC holdings. Significantly, they have transferred about 6,500 BTC to crypto exchanges in the last 30 days. Experts say this transfer signals their readiness to sell or exchange the token. Furthermore, these Bitcoin whales hold about 6.3 million BTC. 

It is worthy of note that many Bitcoin investors have switched to self-custody as they no longer have confidence in centralized exchanges. This is because the CEX recently fell to a new all-time low. Similarly, Santiment tweeted that Bitcoin supply at exchanges has fallen to 6.95%, the lowest since 2018.