Here’s what on-chain data reveals about the preferred cryptocurrency exchanges for Bitcoin whales at the moment.
Ranking Bitcoin Exchanges by Whale Ratios
In a recent post on X, Maartunn, the community manager at CryptoQuant, analyzed which exchange currently leads in Bitcoin Exchange Whale Ratio.
The term “Exchange Whale Ratio” refers to an indicator that monitors the proportion between the total inflows from the top 10 whales to the overall inflows of a particular exchange.
Typically, the ten largest inflow amounts to an exchange are attributed to whale entities, making this metric valuable for understanding how much of the total inflow is driven by these significant investors.
Below is the chart shared by Maartunn that illustrates the fluctuations in Bitcoin Exchange Whale Ratio across various exchanges over the last decade:
It seems Coinbase currently holds the highest metric value | Source: @JA_Maartun on X
In the graph, the blue shade indicates Bitcoin Exchange Whale Ratio values close to 0, while red indicates values around 0.5, and yellow denotes values near 1. It appears most exchanges show blue shades, whereas Coinbase distinctly maintains a consistent yellow streak.
This implies that whales constitute almost all the BTC inflows into Coinbase, in stark contrast to other exchanges where retail inflows dominate, including Binance, the largest exchange by trading volume.
The chart highlights that Coinbase’s whale activity dominance this year hasn’t always been the case. Its emergence as a hub for whales can be linked to a pivotal event: the approval of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
At the beginning of this year, the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) approved spot ETFs, leading to a surge in interest from investors.
Spot ETFs provide investors with indirect exposure to BTC price fluctuations, meaning they do not need to hold actual BTC tokens, as these ETFs buy and hold Bitcoin on behalf of their clients.
To securely manage this Bitcoin, most spot ETFs have selected Coinbase as their custodian, a unique position that may clarify the heavy whale inflows the platform has experienced this year.
BTC Price
Bitcoin briefly dipped below the $67,000 mark earlier today, but it appears to have rebounded, with the current trading price hovering around $67,200.
The cryptocurrency seems to be experiencing bullish momentum lately | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
Featured image from Dall-E, CryptoQuant.com, chart from TradingView.com
