what is whale and why they can manipulate the market and how did they do it? I'm curious about that.
The term "whale" is used to describe large holders of currency, it can be, as one person, and a whole group of people. Below I will give an example of options for manipulating the market.
Rinse and Repeat
Bitcoin Whales and How They Make Market WavesThere are many trading maneuvers whales use to profit, like using a trading tactic commonly called the ’rinse and repeat cycle.’ The rinse trade is used in many types of markets and can be effective if timed correctly and very profitable if you are a bitcoin whale. The trader with a lot of holdings starts selling bitcoins lower than the market rate which at times can cause a panic sell off by small-time traders. The trick is the whale sold just below the current market value and just enough to watch panic ensue. Then the whale waits and watches the panic selling take place until the bitcoin price reaches a new low. At this point, the whales quickly scoop up way more bitcoins than they first started with and after the ‘rinse’ they usually ‘repeat’ this type of trade often. People speculate that there are many ways whales can throw their ‘BTC weight’ around to either push the price up or down to accumulate more bitcoins. Further, whales are not just individuals and can be an organization like a bitcoin investment fund as well.
Utilizing Buy and Sell Walls
Whales in a sense don’t even have to trade their bitcoins to affect the market as they can also bluff with buy and sell walls. In cryptocurrency markets, exchanges use an order book to facilitate trades where a buyer can set up an order to buy or sell at a specified price other than the spot price. For instance, if the market drops traders will usually buy at a lower bid and sell if the price reaches a higher level. In order to place an order in the exchange’s order book, you have to legitimately own enough funds to cover the order. This means a whale and even smaller traders in many ways can bluff and make it seem like a buy or sell walls exist. However, often times large buy and sell walls disappear just before the price gets close enough because a big player was just bluffing. Nevertheless many buy and sell walls are very real and can change the odds rather quickly if they manage to liquidate someone’s assets.
OTC Markets and Dark Pools
Sometimes whales don’t purchase or sell on traditional exchanges because their holdings or orders could cause a stir in the market. For cryptocurrencies over the counter trading (OTC) or “dark pools” is where big buyers and institutional traders can purchase vast amounts of bitcoins without being seen by the public eye. Dark pools are similar to OTC trading as they are usually found on exchanges that enable ‘off the record’ trades which ensures a whale’s moves are more private. Typically OTC markets and dark pools only allow traders who purchase an abundant amount of bitcoin at one time and set minimums for entry.