One important perk of blockchain technology in crypto trading is unparalleled transparency. Since it is a publicly distributed ledger, blockchain allows anyone to access and analyze on-chain transactions.
As a result, savvy and smart traders use this feature to track crypto whales and expert crypto investors’ on-chain activities to refine their strategy while making profitable trading decisions.
For years, crypto whale tracking has been an important tool for profitable investment. Conventionally, traders use blockchain explorers. Today, dozens of dedicated tools and protocols allow retail and new investors to gain useful insights into crypto trading without liquidating their assets.
In this article, we’ll go through ways to spot crypto whales and track them before making trading decisions.
What Are Crypto Whales?
Crypto whales is a common term used in the crypto community to refer to an individual, a web3 identity, or an entity that holds a large supply of a fungible or non-fungible crypto asset. Typically, crypto whales usually amass their huge holdings by buying early into a crypto asset, mining, or having enough capital to invest in a cryptocurrency.
As crypto trading gets increasingly popular, tracking and finding profitable crypto whales is essential to a smart investment. This is because crypto whales have large holdings that cause price inefficiencies and volatility – a law of supply and demand.
As you would expect, crypto whales buying or dumping a large volume of assets can cause an imbalanced supply or demand by substantially increasing or decreasing supply. Therefore, a token holder can be termed a whale if they hold a significant percentage of the token supply to cause price volatility and impact price movements.
Whale Tracking/Watching
In the crypto world, whale tracking has become a widely used method of replicating profitable traders’ positions by leveraging blockchain technology’s transparent and permissionless nature.
Tracking is the process of closely watching transactions carried out by notable traders and investors on a blockchain, usually to gain helpful insights into making informed investment decisions.
Whale tracking is essential since it gives insight into who controls the token supply – and it is profitable to invest in an asset. Fundamentally, whale holders can cause momentary shifts and long-term market cycle changes.
Therefore, when transactions are completed on the blockchain, they are published on the explorer. Meanwhile, API tools also scan over the blockchain to publish the transaction to end users who can examine possible whale buying and selling from trading volume.
Some of the usual whale movements to watch out for include:
Wallet-to-exchange transfers
A common security practice among crypto traders is holding crypto assets in hot or cold non-custodial wallets.
Therefore, if an addressing identified whale makes any transaction from a non-custodial wallet to a crypto exchange, that usually signifies that the whale is holding the asset for a short time or wants to sell it off.
Exchange-to-wallet transfers
In contrast, when a whale transfers assets from a crypto exchange to a wallet, they want to hold an asset long-term, especially for its potential. Therefore, the sudden drop in token supply would cause prices to rise, so they can eventually sell at inflated prices.
Finding and Tracking a Profitable Crypto Whale
As easy as it might sound, tracking a profitable whale can be overwhelming, especially when using a blockchain explorer. Fortunately, newer API tools and protocols are making tracking trading volume and supply/demand shifts in the crypto market relatively easier.
Analyzing price patterns and volume profiles can also help traders predict whale activities and potential price movements. This includes sudden price spikes, fakeouts, trend reversals, or volume spikes.
Apart from all these, there are social media whale alert platforms that make it easier for anyone to get real-time alerts on any whale transaction across all blockchains. All you have to do is follow these accounts and turn on your notifications.
Steps to Track a Whale Using Blockchain Explorer
Blockchain Explorer provides useful insight into the activities of a network. It allows anyone to view and observe what is happening within a blockchain network.
To track a whale with a blockchain explorer:
Using the Advanced Filter
One way to track whales with blockchain explorers like Etherscan is by filtering token transfers from all blockchain transfers using their inbuilt ADVANCED FILTER.
To do this, go to www.etherscan.io/advanced-filter on your web browser. In the advanced filter, you can filter all transactions by duration, contract address, and asset.
Filter the amount by clicking the FILTER icon in the tab labeled AMOUNT/VALUE.
Save the settings to see top assets raked in by whales.
You can select specific assets by clicking the filter button on the tab labeled ASSET. This would filter out whale addresses for a specific cryptocurrency.
Using Top Token Holders
Another way to track Whale Wallet using Blockchain Explorer is by examining a specific token’s holders.
To do this, go to www.etherscan.io. Look for the token using the search bar in the top navigation bar. Alternatively, you can input the contract addresses for a cryptocurrency.
On the token contract page, scroll down and click on HOLDERS from the options available. Here, you will see the top 1000 whale holders.
Simply click any whale address to start tracking. Under the TRANSFERS tab, go through the whale’s recent transfers to have an overview of all on-chain activities of the address.
You can also add the whale wallet to your watchlist and get real-time alerts by clicking on the wallet address from the tab labeled FILTERED BY TOKEN HOLDER. Then, tap the star/favorite button to add the address to your watchlist.
Steps to Track a Whale Using DeBank
DeBank is undoubtedly one of the best wallet and DeFi portfolio trackers. Its powerful tool allows users to check through and follow the on-chain activities of any address.
Using DeBank is simple, especially with its dedicated whale tracker. To find and track a whale with DeBank:
- Visit www.debank.com on your web browser. On the homepage, click on LOG IN TO START. Choose Metamask wallet or any other compatible wallet.
- Sign in by approving the prompt that pops up in your wallet. Then, verify sign-in by completing the CAPTCHA verification.
- Once you’re in, go to MORE > WHALES to start tracking whale wallets on the go.
- To view and analyze a whale activity, explore the addresses available or filter according to your preferred crypto asset.
- Click on a whale address to view the whale’s portfolio. You can also switch to the TRANSACTIONS section to keep tabs on the whale’s on-chain transfers.
- Finally, tap FOLLOW to get real-time alerts on the whale’s future on-chain activities.
Steps to Track a Whale Using Nansen
Nansen is a popular crypto analytics platform that enriches crypto traders with insightful investment and trading info, real-time data, on-chain analytical tools, and alerts.
- To track whale wallet with Nansen, go to www.nansen.ai. On the homepage, click on PRODUCTS > PORTFOLIO.
- In Nansen Portfolio Explorer, input the whale’s wallet address in the search bar to find the wallet’s on-chain activities.
- You can have a quick overview of the wallet’s holding from the PORTFOLIO tab.
- From the TRANSACTIONS tab, you can view the wallet’s on-chain footprint and transfer over time. The ANALYTICS tab gives an advanced analysis of the wallet’s holding over time.
- Finally, you can download the whale wallet’s holdings and assets into a CSV file by clicking the EXPORT button.
Steps to Track a Whale Using Zerion
Zerion is a new cutting-edge crypto wallet and portfolio management tool for traders and investors. It allows users to seamlessly track any wallet, trading performance, and assets from their fingertips.
It also allows users to interact with any DeFi and dApp protocol/ecosystem. To track a whale wallet with Zerion:
- Go to app.zerion.io on your web browser. From the search tab in the top navigation bar, paste the whale wallet address and hit ENTER.
- On the wallet page, you can view the whale’s holding and position from the TOKEN tab.
- You can also view the wallet’s transfers and transactions in the HISTORY tab.
- Zerion also allows users to share a wallet profile or add a wallet to the watchlist to start tracking.
Steps to Track Crypto Whale on Twitter (X)
Another way to track whale transactions without going through the technical process of using a tracker is via X (formerly Twitter). Several automated Twitter bots automatically list and post whale transactions on all blockchains. Some of the best whale tracker bots on Twitter include:
- @WhaleAlert
- @Whale_Alert
- @WatcherGuru
- @Bitcoin_Whales
- @WhaleBinance
- @BlockchainWhale
- @CryptoWhale
- @largest_btc
- @BitcoinWhales
To track crypto whales from an automated Twitter bots:
- Go to x.com on your web browser or open your X (Twitter) mobile app.
- Using the search bar, look for any whale bots and click the FOLLOW button from the result.
- To receive instantaneous whale alerts, open the Twitter bot profile and click the notification icon. Set an instant notification to ALL POSTS. This way, you can see all alerts from automated accounts.
- Once you receive any whale alert, click on the transaction hash to view the wallet’s owner and holdings.
- Meanwhile, the alert summary lets you see the whale that bought or sold the asset. Copy the address and analyze holding with your DeBank profile.
Should Traders and Investors Track Whale Wallets?
Keeping tabs on crypto whale action can give traders an overall market sentiment and directional bias. This is because, as whales are in or sell out a large supply of a cryptocurrency, they influence investors’ and experts’ long-term views.
Still, tracking whales can never replace in-depth research and professional trading strategies. Focusing on fundamental concepts and analysis, including tokenomics, governmental laws, doxxed devs, innovative utility, and liquidity, can help make smart decisions about the viability and profitability of an asset.
Therefore, it is important to thoroughly Do Your Own Research (DYOR) about an asset without relying completely on the actions of anyone. Whales are also traders who can make mistakes or prey on other traders’ Fear Of Mission Out (FOMO).
Like many inexperienced and noob investors, whales can also make trading decisions out of emotions. Therefore, tracking whales should be used with several other trading indicators and price analysis strategies to ensure maximum profitability and lower risk to reward.
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