What is Whale?

A crypto whale is a high-net-worth individual (HNWI) — or organization — that holds a large amount of a specific cryptocurrency. While there is no exact monetary threshold, a whale's asset holdings (when converted to USD) typically exceed $10,000,000. The number of coins (or tokens) necessary to be considered a whale varies by project. For example (in 2021 prices), an Ethereum whale might have over 10,000 ether (ETH) and a Bitcoin whale might have in excess of 1,000 bitcoins (BTC). Notable Bitcoin whales include Satoshi Nakamoto, Tim Draper, Barry Silbert, and the Winklevoss twins.