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Data: The number of giant bitcoin whales has soared, and the number of addresses with more than 1,000 bitcoins hit a new high in nearly two years

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Throughout 2020, it took 11 months for the number of cryptocurrency whales to increase to 6.7%.

Rhythm BlockBeats news, January 18, according to Arcane Research's Glassnode data, since December, the number of wallets with at least 1,000 bitcoins has surged to 7.2%. In comparison, it took 11 months for the number of cryptocurrency whales to increase to 6.7% in 2020 as a whole.

BitInfoCharts data shows that there are currently 2,318 encrypted wallets holding more than 1,000 bitcoins. As of press time, the assets were worth $35.7 million. Some of these wallets come from wallets owned by cryptocurrency exchanges (Huobi, Binance, and Bittrex), which are considered the largest whales. Only Huobi has more than 100,000 BTC.

However, most of the top 100 addresses are dormant, meaning that for years they None of the bitcoins in have been moved.

The knee-jerk assumption people make when explaining the burgeoning whales is institutional buying increase. However, Arcane Research does not rule out that there may be a more general reason behind it: exchanges splitting their wallets.