Exploring Bitcoin Ownership Categories and Their Impact on Transit-Transaction Activity and Price.

Short introduction

In this fascinating article, we delve into this fun classification and its impact on transit behavior within the Bitcoin blockchain. From shrimps to whales, we explore how different ownership categories influence the overall Bitcoin volume turnover.

Summary

Discover intriguing insights into Bitcoin transit behavior and its correlation with price movements in our latest analysis. We explore the transit-transfer behavior of different ownership categories, ranging from shrimps to whales, and examine their influence on the overall Bitcoin volume turnover. Notably, the activity of “Octopus and Fishes” declined before a price crash, while “Dolphins and Sharks” became active during falling prices. Additionally, we uncover suspicious patterns among “Whales,” who also significantly increased their activity during price crashes.

Introduction

Many of us are already acquainted with the playful classification of Bitcoin owners based on marine creatures, such as shrimps, crabs, octopuses, fishes, dolphins, sharks, and whales. This whimsical categorization has become a popular way to humorously depict the diverse range of individuals involved in the world of Bitcoin.

While not a scientifically precise classification, it adds an element of amusement and relatability to the crypto community, creating a shared language and understanding of different levels of Bitcoin ownership.

Report

In this present report, we decided to apply a similar classification to see how the transit-transfer behavior differs by the actual volume being transferred.

Small actors: Less than 10 Bitcoins (Shrimp and Crab)

Starting with very few transit transfers of less than 10 Bitcoins.

Here you can see that from the whole transit volume, “shrimps transactions” – green and “crab transactions” – yellow, together make less than 20% of the overall bitcoin volume turnover. Which, however is significant! And we can also notice a little increase in both volumes around November 2022, and they remained almost two times larger since that date, compared to what they were before. Also, there was a little peak for crabs around the middle of December.

Medium size actors: 10 to 1000 Bitcoins (Octopus, Fish, Dolphin, and Shark)

The red line is for transactions between 10 and 100 Bitcoins – “Octopus and Fishes”. While Blue is for transactions between 100 and 1000 “Dolphins and Sharks”. And we can clearly see how important these players are and how much they dedicate to the overall turnover of Bitcoins. Have you noticed how the activity of “Octopus and Fishes” declined between June and October 2022? Almost at the same time, where the price crashed for 2nd time. Notice how their activity suddenly increased (even higher during 18 months), just before the price crashed to its lowest for the observed period (16-17K USD), it literally moved in the opposite direction to the whole transit volume (making it even more importance). It’s also interesting to see what “Dolphins and Sharks” did. They made almost 40% of the whole volume at the very beginning of the year, and they significantly reduced their activity just before the price dump started (in the middle of April). When the price was falling, for some reason “Dolphins and Sharks” began to actively transit Bitcoins (more than 40% of overall turnover) and continued till the price stabilized, but after a week, their activity declined again and the price crashed. Why was this? Have these larger players settled figures on the chessboard and helped orchestrate this dump?  Maybe it was a second wave? Their actions seem to correlate with the price. They increased activity in November when the price looked more or less flat and started decreasing just before the final price crash, then they started to increase activity once again, together with the increase in price until they reached an average of 30% of the total turnover. IMO It’s definitely worth monitoring the activity of these players. When they change the intensity of transit transactions, prices seem to change together with this activity.

Largest actors: 1000 and 10000+ Bitcoins (whale, humpback, and Ktulhu).

Now, let’s check the largest players, those who transfer between 1000 and 10000 Bitcoins – “Whales” and those who transfer more than 10000 let’s call them “Ktulhus” 😊

Whales are Green and it was them, who made most of the Bitcoin turnover. It looks really suspicious, how their activity suddenly increased from 12% to 72% of the overall Bitcoin blockchain turnover between the middle of March and the end of April. Together with the price crash, activity was reduced and later increased just before the next crash, then stayed active for some time and finally declined in October-November. These were strange days, where Binance was relocating their cold wallet almost every day for some periods of time. Why they did this – no idea. Anyway, it’s pretty interesting to see that Whales activated exactly for the period where the price crashed from above 40K down to below 18K. 

So what about “Ktulhus”? They don’t seem to be that representative here, but note how active they were before the second price decline. We decided to leave them for you to speculate about. However, think how the chart would look if we combined volumes of all players who transited more than 1000 Bitcoins, it would make those suspicious spikes even higher.

All together in one chart

Here is a final diagram presenting all players and their transit activity during the last 18 months.

You should have probably noticed that the most drastic increase in volumes of Whale transits went in the opposite direction to “Dolphins and sharks”. Why could that be? Please share your thoughts and ideas.

Summary Long

This article introduces the playful classification of Bitcoin owners based on marine creatures, ranging from shrimps to whales. While this classification is not scientifically precise, it adds amusement and relatability to the crypto community, providing a shared language for understanding different levels of Bitcoin ownership. The authors then apply a similar classification to analyze transit-transfer behavior based on the actual volume being transferred.

The analysis reveals that shrimps and crabs (transfers of less than 10 BTC) make up less than 20% of the overall Bitcoin volume turnover. There is also an interesting increase in activity among these smaller players around November 2022. Moving on to larger players, the analysis highlights the significance of octopuses, fishes, dolphins, and sharks (transfers between 10 and 1000 BTC) in the overall Bitcoin turnover. Their activity patterns seem to correlate with price movements, with notable changes observed before price crashes and fluctuations

Finally, the focus turns to the whales (transfers between 1000 and 10000 BTC) and the intriguing patterns surrounding their transit activity. Whales show suspicious increases in activity during specific periods, often coinciding with price crashes. The article also mentions “Ktulhus,” representing transfers of more than 10000 BTC, which display interesting activity before the second price decline. The analysis prompts readers to speculate on the dynamics between different player categories and their influence on price movements.