Transparency is 1 of the most intriguing aspects of cryptocurrency and information technology was this openness that drew many early on supporters to Bitcoin (BTC).

Blockchain engineering science makes all information associated with the network'southward performance accessible for anyone interested in taking a look. Every known address, transaction, fee paid and other details relating to multisignature and SegWit usage is out in the open.

The elevation xv wealthiest Bitcoin addresses have ever been the centerpiece of attending for several reasons. Some crypto researchers habitually sort through the top addresses searching for the footsteps of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Others study data to track the maneuvers of crypto whales and predict market manipulation that results in volatile price swings in the Bitcoin price.

The top addresses have even caught the eye of government agencies like the United States Internal Acquirement Service every bit well equally the Treasury Department.

In fact, entire companies specializing in obtaining additional information on cryptocurrency addresses and their potential associations have been formed. Information technology'southward no surreptitious that the U.Due south. Internal Revenue Service hired Chainalysis and Integra FEC, two crypto analytics firms, to track transactions.

More recently, nether Treasury Secretarial assistant Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Section is considering whether or not a dominion on self-hosted cryptocurrency wallets is required. If canonical, these changes emphasize the importance of privacy for market participants.

Addresses are not the same as entities

Pinnacle xv Bitcoin addresses. Source: bitinfocharts.com

As shown in a higher place, the peak 15 addresses concur one.07 million BTC, or v.7% of the outstanding Bitcoin supply. At the current $26,500 price level, this equals $28.3 billion. While this is a large amount of Bitcoin, it's also worth noting that BTC'southward aggregated book on spot exchanges surpasses $5 billion per 24-hour interval.

Information technology's important to note that an accost's initial eolith date does non hateful that the entity owning the accost first acquired coins on that solar day. The coins could take been sent from another accost belonging to the aforementioned entity. Therefore, the dates showing first funds being sent to xi addresses since simply 2018 do not prove that the address holders are new to the sector.

Information technology is also worth noting that none of the top 15 addresses are rumored to exist Satoshi's holdings. Researcher Sergio Lerner has shown that the blocks Nakamoto mined contain unique patterns known equally Patoshi patterns. Although that mined BTC has withal to exist moved, information technology was not allocated to a unmarried accost.

The elevation 100 addresses concentrate 15.7% of the total supply, which is rather impressive compared to the level of distribution seen in traditional markets. For example, the peak xx funds owning PayPal shares concord a combined 19.7% of the total share supply.

Five of the 15 about significant addresses are known addresses from exchanges, indicating that the credible concentration does non exist in a way that tin can be attributed to crypto whales.

In addition to exchanges belongings large sums of Bitcoin in wallets, some custodians too accumulate BTC for numerous clients in wallets spread over multiple addresses with large sums.

The superlative addresses are recent holders and non-SegWit-compliant

An impressive eight out of the superlative 15 addresses have never withdrawn a single satoshi. Excluding the five exchange-related addresses, merely xx% have ever moved their coins. This indicates a potent prevalence of hardcore holders.

Moreover, 11 of the 15 addresses were first used less than three years agone. Multiple reasons could be behind this oddity, including improved security measures, a change of custodian, or different ownership structures.

But two out of the top xv (and iii in the tiptop 200) addresses are Bech32 SegWit-uniform, which can significantly reduce transaction fees. This indicates that users are resistant to change despite the articulate benefits of cheaper transactions. Even more interesting is that the Bitfinex cold wallet ranked second on the list is the but 1 that has ever had an outgoing transaction.

A few mysterious addresses keep stacking

The tertiary wealthiest address is something of a mystery, equally it contains an untouched 94,506 BTC. The address made headlines back in September 2019 later Glassnode reported that 73,000 of the BTC in the wallet had originated from Huobi.

Many analysts suggested that these coins were connected to the Plustoken Ponzi scheme, but these rumors were proven incorrect afterwards the Chinese police seized 194,775 BTC on Nov. 19 from the fraudulent commutation.

Aside from the fourth-largest wallet containing 79,957 BTC since March 2011, 20 of the top 300 addresses are over ix years old. Although no i can testify that these funds accept been lost, most assume then.

Those untouched coins amount to 313,013 BTC, and only one accost has ever transacted out since origination. Thus, apart from F2Pool's ix,000 BTC held at address 1J1F3U7gHrCjsEsRimDJ3oYBiV24wA8FuV, at that place is a very good take chances that the funds from the other addresses are effectively lost.

1P5ZEDWTKTFGxQjZphgWPQUpe554WKDfHQ balance. Source: bitinfocharts.com

The 5th-ranked address shown above was created in Feb of 2019 and, at origination, was listed as the 81st-largest address. Since then, it has been accumulating regularly, adding from as low every bit 1 BTC in December 2019 to 4,100 in a single transaction in June 2019. Despite being a large accumulator, it has made vii transactions out, ranging from 786 BTC to 3,000 BTC. Perchance even whales have bills to exist paid.

There are precisely 100 addresses commencement used between Nov. 30, 2018 and December. 18, 2018 containing effectually either 8,000 BTC or 12,000 BTC each. These addresses are usually attributed to Coinbase Custody. Amounting to 881,471 BTC, the addresses' funds equal to 96% of the exchange's cold wallet, co-ordinate to concatenation.info.

The new whale local acme theory

Every investor has a gut feeling that the inflow of new Bitcoin whales is crucial for a sustained rally, even though in that location has never been hard evidence of this effect until at present.

There is a constant flow of new addresses entering the tiptop 300. For case, xvi of them received their first-always deposits within the past 30 days. Again, this is not necessarily a new entity but an address receiving its kickoff-e'er BTC.

Although it is uncommon, sometimes gaps of 50 or more days occur without newcomers joining the elevation 300. Coincidentally, these periods mark the terminate of rally periods, and a good for you correction usually follows.

BTC/USD price on Coinbase, early on 2020. Source: TradingView

Precisely nil of the top 300 addresses were initially used between Nov. 28, 2019 and Feb. 09, 2020, when BTC went up by 35%. Oddly plenty, the marketplace plunged 52% over the next 32 days.

BTC/USD price on Coinbase, 2017. Source: TradingView

A like effect happened betwixt Oct. 18, 2017 and Dec. 11, 2017. During this menstruation BTC rallied 193% while none of the peak 300 addresses were newcomers. A 34% price drop occurred over the following 36 days.

Earlier that, none of the top 300 addresses were initiated between April 20, 2017 and July 07, 2017. Meanwhile, BTC soared 111%, while a 24% crash has also followed this flow over the course of nine days.

So far, history has been proving that the new whale theory makes sense: The market rallies during prolonged periods of fewer new addresses making it to the superlative 300 holders list, every bit information technology indicates accumulation past entities that already had position. On the other hand, new whales could be driven by fear of missing out, which unremarkably indicates local tops.

Therefore, it makes sense to monitor the top addresses and on-concatenation data to gauge potential corrections.

Every fourth dimension large deposits enter exchanges, this indicates a potential sell order and is deemed bearish by traders. These movements are then compared to BTC price tops and bottoms in an endeavour to notice some correlation between whale transfers.

Whenever the market is rallying and miners, in turn, reduce selling, analysts look a toll correction once they starting time moving coins again. To put things in perspective, this is 6,300 Bitcoin per week that needs to be captivated past the market to avoid toll impact.

At present that institutional investors have "arrived," investors will be itching to see whether their inflow in 2021 will go along to absorb newly minted BTC.

While 2021 is looking pretty bullish for the crypto marketplace, there is always an unexpected price crash that frequently results from the authorities threatening regulation.

This ways it will nonetheless be important for savvy investors to follow the peak 15 Bitcoin addresses and the movements of crypto whales in 2021.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the autho r and practice not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading motility involves risk. You should carry your own research when making a decision.