Whale

A whale is an individual or entity that holds a very large amount of a cryptocurrency, enough that their trades can move the market. There is no fixed threshold, but for bitcoin, addresses holding 1,000 BTC or more are often called whales.

Whales include early adopters, funds, exchanges, companies with bitcoin on their balance sheet, ETF custodians and governments holding seized coins. Because blockchains are public, analysts and automated "whale alert" accounts track large transfers, especially those moving to or from exchanges, as possible signs of buying or selling.

Whale activity matters most in small tokens, where a handful of wallets may hold most of the supply and can dump on retail buyers. Before investing in a smaller coin, check its holder distribution on a block explorer. Be careful interpreting whale alerts, though: many large transfers are exchanges reorganising their own wallets, not trades.