Hey there!
Today, I have an exciting topic that’s been buzzing in the cryptocurrency community: how to track crypto whales.
If you’ve ever wondered about the movement and activities of these influential players in the crypto space, you’re in the right place.
In this article, I’ll go into the world of tracking crypto whales, what it means, and the tools you can use to stay on top of their movements.
So, let’s dive right in!
So, What do I mean by Tracking Crypto Whales?
Before I go on, let me explain what crypto whales actually are.
The term “whale” comes from traditional financial markets.
It describes individuals or groups who can significantly move the price of an asset via their purchases and sales.
The reason being, these individuals or entities have large holdings of cryptocurrencies, so their buying and selling decisions have big effects.
By understanding their movements, you can gain some valuable insights and even make more informed investment choices.
In cryptocurrency, these “whales” own vast sums of digital assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum, for example.
I’m talking about access to quantities in the billions of dollars.
Crypto whales often include early adopters, institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges, investment funds, and large-scale mining operations.
Their massive transactions or moves may generate price changes, set off trends, or indicate market mood, which obviously has big effects.
Now that we know what whales are. Let me show you what happen when they move...
Let’s dive deeper into Whale Movement
The term “whale movement” describes the purchasing and selling of significant sums of cryptocurrencies by these whales.
It’s the subsequent shifting of markets which basically sums up the definition of whale movement.
Let’s get a little bit practical and look at a real example of what a whale movement would be.
In Bitcoin, a transaction which moves millions of dollars would be considered as one.
As stated, these massive deals have the potential to alter the market significantly.
But why should anyone be bothered about transactions that count as a whale movement?
Next, Let’s look at the Significance of Tracking Whale Movement
Well, tracking whale movement is crucial for several reasons.
Firstly, it can provide insights into market sentiment and help you gauge the confidence or skepticism of these influential players.
You can monitor whale movements to identify potential trends, spot market manipulation, and then adjust your investment strategy accordingly.
In a way, it’s like having a sneak peek into the actions of the big players.
Understanding the intentions of crypto whales can be particularly valuable during volatile market conditions, too.
For example, if you observe a whale selling off a significant amount of a particular cryptocurrency, it might indicate a bearish sentiment and signal a potential market downturn.
Alternatively, if you notice a whale accumulating a specific coin, it could suggest a bullish outlook and provide a buying opportunity.
Remember too that not all whale behaviors are deliberate attempts to manipulate the market.
While some whales may act to influence markets to their advantage, others may just be completing massive trades as part of their investing or trading strategy.
Therefore, understanding the background context and driving forces behind the whale movement is crucial to assess its relevance in the market correctly.
Now that you know the importance of tracking whale movement, how do you actually find them?
So, How do you Track Whale Movement?
Ultimately, the main technique is to monitor specific wallets which are known to belong to whales.
Once discovered, you can maintain tabs on these wallets to follow their movements, see the money they contain, and look for any sizable transfers made into or out of them.
Even though the actual individuals behind these wallets are typically pseudonymous, the blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies enables transparent transactions.
This makes it feasible to keep an eye on wallet addresses and related activity regardless.
But what tools are actually out there in the wild?
Let’s Explore Crypto Whale Tracking Tools
A crypto whale tracker is a specialized tool that can explore and decode blockchain transactions.
They transform raw data from these blockchains into user-friendly, human-readable visualisations.
Blockchains work using something called digital distributed ledger technology (DLT).
What this means is that they’re a place where transactions are recorded and stored across a network of computers.
The raw transaction data on the blockchain exists as hashes - basically long, unique strings of characters and numbers.
A crypto whale tracker can translate these raw hashes into something you and I can understand.
For example, user IDs and transaction amounts.
These tools help their users to fully grasp the movements of significant currency holders and recognize trades across the market.
Crypto whale tracking tools also offer some extra features and functionalities.
While their primary purpose is to monitor and interpret whale movements, some provide additional capabilities.
This might include features such as advanced analytics, market sentiment indicators, or customizable alerts.
So let’s say you wanted to track real-time movements…
The first tool I’ll show you is called Arkham
Arkham is a popular free crypto analytics tool providing real-time whale movement data.
It works very well at identifying whales who entered the market early and later sold tokens at significantly higher prices.
The tool helps identify tokens that recently experienced price surges and easily identifies whales who bought the token before its value skyrocketed.
To do this, go to the token search feature on Arkham and search for the token.
Go to the bottom right section...
The “Time” button lets you select the time preceding the token’s surge...
Next, clicking on the “Value” button will sort transactions based on their value...
Once you see the transactions based on their value, you can gain access to an extensive list of whales who purchased the token just before the price increased.
Arkham can then provide real-time information about the wallet’s latest activity and Ethereum holdings by clicking on any desired wallet address.
Now that we looked at Arkham, what if you want to track whales over decentralized exchanges?
And that brings us to Etherscan combined with Dexscreener
Etherscan and Dexscreener are two different tracking tools that greatly simplify the tracking of crypto whales.
Begin with Dexscreen, and start looking for tokens that have seen notable price increases.
Once you’ve located these surges, you should record the precise dates when each one happened...
Next, head to Etherscan’s main dashboard page and type the target token address into the search field...
To examine all purchase and sell transactions for a specific asset on decentralized exchanges (DEXes), click the “Dex Trades” button on this page.
After that, click “Action” and select “View All” to get the list of previous DEX transactions.
Focus on the period just before the anticipated price increase.
It’s here you need to look out for any larger buy transactions.
If you encounter some, you can investigate them further by clicking on the transaction’s hash.
By doing so, you will see key details, such as the wallets involved in the swap, the fees paid, and so on.
Once you have identified these wallets, look deeper into their transaction histories to help ascertain if they consistently profit from their buy and sell activities.
If you find a correlation then congratulations! You found yourself a profitable whale.
But these aren’t the only tools to give you an overview…
Moving on, let’s talk about DeBank
DeBank is a wallet analytics tool with a user-friendly interface that allows you to research wallet addresses.
Also, it offers a DeFi portfolio tracker, making it a valuable tool for tracking the activity and on-chain portfolios of addresses of interest.
It can show you crypto asset portfolios, NFT collections, and transaction history.
In this sense, Debank essentially lets you more easily find addresses that make profitable trades and investments.
To acquire a whale’s wallet address, you have two options.
You can either use Debank directly or get them from a blockchain explorer, which I’ll get to later.
So, to get them from Debank first access debank.com and navigate to the left-hand side of the webpage.
Next, click on the “More” option...
From the available list of options, select “Whales.”...
Upon reaching the Whales page, browse the list of whale wallet addresses and click on the specific one you wish to track...
When you’re researching these big holders, make sure the address is not associated with a contract, multi-sig, exchange, or coin developer.
The reason is that these are not regular individual holders, and so aren’t classified as whales.
A quick tip for this is to focus on portfolios below $90 million, as they are more likely to be personal wallet addresses.
Now, as I mentioned before there is another way to identify whale wallets you want to research on Debank.
So, Let’s Find out How to Use a blockchain explorer
So first, visit CoinMarketCap and search for a coin of interest.
Next, click on the contract address related to that coin, which will take you to its blockchain explorer...
Within the explorer, locate the “Holders” section and commence the search for a whale’s address.
What you’re looking for here are the largest holders.
When you find some, record the individual whale wallet addresses...
Copy the wallet address you wish to track and paste it into Debank’s search box.
You’ll be able to see a comprehensive view of the whale’s token holdings across different blockchains within the “Portfolio” menu that appears.
This allows you to dive deeper, and research the specific tokens they hold and the respective blockchains holding them...
Moving on, go to the “Transactions” option to discover in-depth details regarding the whale’s transaction history and recent activities.
By analyzing these transactions, you can gain valuable insights into the actions taken by whales, which could be super useful for your own strategies...
Conclusion
In this article, you learned how tracking cryptocurrency whales provides useful information about market patterns.
By looking at them closely, it’s easier to see possible opportunities or hazards and let you modify your investing plan as necessary.
I showed you how to use tools like Arkham, Etherscan, and DeBank to help you get ahead.
You saw that Arkham can detect whales who joined the market early and sold tokens at much higher prices.
You also learned how Etherscan and Dexscreener are two different tracking tools that, when combined, simplify the process of whale tracking by giving you a great overview.
I also showed you the ins and outs of Debank to help you track smart money addresses, DeFi portfolios and really dig into what those whales are up to.
Well, that’s it for this article - I hope it helps. Take care out there, and talk to you soon!
