Orca Crypto
Trading term

Whale

A holder large enough that their trades move the market.

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Updated 2026-08-303 min readDefinition
Definition

A holder large enough that their trades move the market.

A whale is anyone holding enough of an asset that buying or selling their position visibly affects price. In a small token that might be 50000 dollars. In Bitcoin it is a great deal more.

Because blockchains are public, whale wallets can be tracked. Several services alert on large transfers, though interpreting them is harder than it sounds.

In practice

A transfer from a whale wallet to an exchange is often read as preparing to sell, but it can equally be collateral movement or custody rotation.

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