I have a new hobby! Fortunately for me this new “whale watching” hobby does not require me to be on a boat in the ocean, nor do I need to bring my own binoculars. We are talking “Cryptocurrency Whale Watching” here. Whether you are just entering the cryptoworld or you have been in the space for quite some time, you have most likely had a run in with a “Crypto Whale” in some form or another. Maybe you see a HUGE sell of and your favorite coin takes a dip. Perhaps you see a massive Bitcoin buy wall and rode the wave with that whale. One way or another, Crypto Whales are out there and they are making big plays and big waves! Follow The ‘Stache as I show you my new digital binoculars for what new hobby of watching what the whales are up to.
ETHplorer
I came across this website about a month ago and have been meaning to write an article about how cool I found the site to be once you start digging. ETHplorer.io is yet another blockchain explorer specifically for Ethereum based tokens. While there are already quite a few block explorers out there, this one has a great interface and makes it really easy to see what addresses are holding the MOST of a token and what percentage that is of the overall current circulating supply.
Here is the explorer page for OMG, one of the most popular ERC-20 tokens built on the Ethereum network. Not only do they offer a nice little price chart, widgets, and complete information overview, they also let you see specifically which address are HODLing, how much they have, and what percentage it is of the total supply. Here is the HOLDERS tab for OMG. As you can see the biggest OMG Whale is holding over 15% of the total supply of OMG tokens valued at a whopping $ 163,805,773.98!
These summary pages let you explore or “Whale Watch” and even receive notifications or incorporate their API into your project. If you switch over to the transfers tab, you can see exactly where tokens are exchanging hands and it can provide insight to any BIG moves that these Crypto Whales are making. While these are not the most reliable indicators, if you see a Whale dumping thousands of coins when it happens you can bet that will cause some volatility in the markets.
Digging Deeper
While the coin overview pages are great, you can even “follow” these Whale addresses and see all the transactions they are making from a particular address. As you can see in the screenshot above someone transferred over 18,000 OMG today. If you click on the individual addresses you can see exactly what tokens they are holding, how much, and where they have been sent! Here is the address detail page for the Whale that just sent off is 18k OMG tokens somewhere else.
As you can see this site provides a TON of information in a way that makes it really easy to do your Crypto Whale Watching! When it comes to doing your research on a coin, in particular an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum network, then I think that ETHplorer.io is a great supplemental tool that can give you some important insight as to what the big Whales are doing with their tokens.
What do you think about this resource? Is it worth the time? Have you used it before and profited off of seeing some big moves here?
Keep A Close Eye On This ‘Stache!
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://insights.blockonomics.co/cryptocurrency-whale-watching-d351858dd095/