burakkesmeci2025-01-25

Changes in Bitcoin Investor Classes Over the Past Year

When analyzing Bitcoin investor classes over the last year, we observe an increase in the number of whales, while the number of small/retail investors has declined. Large Investors: Bitcoin Whales (holders of 1,000 BTC or more) Retail Investors: Small-scale addresses (holding 0.01–1 BTC) Let’s dive into the numerical changes: January 25, 2024 Large Investors → 16.1M Retail Investors → 1.75M January 25, 2025 Large Investors → 16.4M Retail Investors → 1.68M What Happened After the U.S. Elections? Following the completion of the U.S. elections (the first week of November), the number of whale addresses surged significantly, while the number of retail addresses dropped sharply. In the last 10 days, the decline in retail investor numbers has accelerated. In a bull market, we typically expect the number of retail investors to grow. However, recent data shows the opposite trend. It’s important to note that Spot ETFs may have a substantial impact on this data. Since we don’t know how many investors are represented under a single Bitcoin address belonging to a Spot ETF provider, the current numbers may not tell the full story. Nonetheless, this trend is noteworthy and raises concerns about the sustainability of the current bull market.