Whales are mega-rich traders who inhabit the depths of the crypto seas. Theirs is a realm of dark pools, hidden order books, OTC deals, and rich list wallet addresses. Shunning publicity in favor of pseudonymity, most whales keep their trading and personal lives separated, with only the blockchain revealing the monster sums they shuffle between exchanges. A handful of whales have bucked this trend, however, laying their trading record on the line for all to judge.
Also read: Close to 11 Million BTC Haven’t Moved in Over a Year
These Crypto Bellwethers Are Willing to Share Their Trades
When quantitative trading firm Alameda Research decided to publicize its trading performance via Bitmex’s leaderboard in early 2019, it was seen as a bold move and clever marketing ploy – a novel way of touting their nascent over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk. A year on, though, and such leaderboards give us a voyeuristic insight into the activities of some of crypto’s biggest whales. But who are they and what can we actually glean from their growing mountains of money?
Bitmex is not the only exchange that maintains a trading leaderboard; Bitfinex does too. You can sift through a list containing a couple of hundred traders, many of whom are making modest gains or losses. Few are willing to disclose whether they’re long or short at any given point in time, but the leaderboard on Bitmexresources.com can extrapolate this information, explaining:
If the overall profit for the user has increased since last update and Bitcoin price also increased during that period, it is safe to assume that the user on Bitmex’s leaderboard has a long position. It is vice versa for short position assumption – if the overall profit
