Bitcoin Whales to the Rescue?

Last month, we asked whether a whale had sunk bitcoin following a sharp and sudden decline for the world’s leading digital currency. As it turns out, these oversized holders could be playing a vital role in stabilizing the market.

Not-So-Killer Whales

New research by Chainanalysis purports to show that bitcoin whales have a stabilizing role in the market and that fear over lop-sized control of transactions is likely overblown. Although large stakeholders can influence price action by buying or selling bitcoin in large amounts, most of them aren’t active traders anyway. Those who do trade are more likely to play against the herd by purchasing bitcoin on price declines.

The conclusions drawn by Chainanalysis follow a careful examination of bitcoin’s 32 biggest wallets.

“Our data demonstrates that Bitcoin whales are a diverse group, and only about a third of them are active traders,” the group said in a new report. “They appear, in aggregate, to have…