Just 104 Ethereum Whales Control 57% Of All Supply, Data Reveals

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As a seasoned analyst with years of experience in the cryptocurrency market, I find myself increasingly concerned by the growing dominance of Ethereum mega whales. With 104 entities controlling more than half of the ETH supply, we’re witnessing an unprecedented level of centralization that could potentially have dire consequences for the network.

Data from the blockchain indicates that a small number of large Ethereum investors possess a significant portion of the total supply, and this proportion seems to be increasing over time.

Ethereum Mega Whales Own More Than 57% Of All Tokens In Existence

As a researcher delving into recent blockchain trends, I’ve been examining the Ethereum (ETH) supply distribution across various user segments, based on insights shared by Santiment, a leading on-chain analytics firm in their latest post.

In this context, the measure of relevance we’re referring to is called “Supply Distribution,” which currently monitors the proportion of the existing Ethereum supply that specific wallet groups control.

As an analyst, I categorize investors based on the quantity of coins they hold, such as Ethereum (ETH) in this case. For example, the “1 to 10 coins” cohort encompasses all wallets that own between 1 and 10 ETH.

In our current discussion, we’re focusing on three main groups or categories: those with 0 to 100 coins, those with 100 to 100,000 coins, and those with more than 100,000 coins. The initial group represents the smaller investors in the market, such as retail investors.

From my perspective as an analyst, these smaller wallets don’t possess significant holdings in comparison to the broader market. Individually, they may not carry much weight in the current market dynamics. However, when we look at the second group, specifically those holding between 100 and 100,000 coins, these wallets begin to grow noticeably, though it’s only toward the upper end of this range where their size becomes more substantial.

The range includes two of the key investor groups in the sector, the sharks and whales. The whales are significantly more massive than the sharks, so they are the cohort carrying the more importance in the market.

Ultimately, the largest addresses within the network accumulate over 100,000 Ether each, translating to approximately $400 million at present prices. Consequently, these investors form a truly substantial group. A fitting title for them might be “Mega Whales.

graph provided by the analytics company, illustrating the evolution of Supply Distribution for these three groups of Ethereum wallets over the last ten years.

Over the last few years, the proportion of Ethereum owned by large whale investors has increased noticeably as shown in the graph above. Meanwhile, smaller wallet groups have seen their influence decrease, with significant declines observed among both shark and whale investors.

In simpler terms, a relatively small group of 104 large investors (referred to as mega whales) currently control approximately 57.35% of all Ethereum in circulation – the highest amount they’ve ever held. Conversely, the holdings of larger and medium-sized investors (sharks) are at a record low of 33.46%.

Typically, a concentrated supply of any cryptocurrency doesn’t have beneficial effects. However, this is particularly significant for Ethereum because its operation relies on a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. This implies that if a single entity or group holds more than 50% of the supply, they could potentially seize control over the network.

To clarify, numerous large “whale” entities may not represent individual investors, but rather digital wallets managed by staking pools and similar platforms. These entities hold the coins centrally for multiple investors.

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Ethereum has seen a pullback during the past day, as its price is now $3,930.

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2024-12-18 08:41