Whales hold one-third of all ETH and one-fifth of all BTC, Chainalysis finds

Just 376 people hold more than 30% of all ether, Chainalysis research shows. Chainalysis excluded exchanges from its research which tend to hold enormous amounts of ether on behalf of their users. Chainalysis also noted that over 20% of all bitcoin is controlled by whales, which they define as the top 500 holders of a cryptocurrency.

The 376 ethereum holders are responsible for a relatively small volume of transactions (approximately 7%) and don't have a strong influence on the price of the cryptocurrency. However, Chainalysis noted that their transactions do make the market more volatile.

“Whales consistently hold 25-40% of the circulating supply of Ether, but only account for between 5% and 18% of economic transaction volume,” report reads. Most of them are not active holders. In fact, as much as 60% of their holdings is held off exchanges.