With the price of both Bitcoin and Ethereum recently smashing through all-time highs, there’s no denying the optimism that is currently pervading the crypto landscape. As institutional capital floods in, pushing the market value of all cryptocurrencies beyond the $1 trillion mark, many are speculating about what’s around the corner: can the industry build on its momentum, do things settle down and consolidate before the next big push, or does bearish sentiment kick in?
There are perhaps no better people to ask than the crypto whales whose activities largely dictate movements in the market. These deep-pocketed investors were behind Bitcoin’s recent rally, with bulls who bought at least 1,000 BTC driving unprecedented demand in the final months of 2020. At one stage, a handful of whales moved almost 12,600 BTC worth $500 million in the space of 12 hours.
Though many whales understandably prefer to keep predictions under their hat, decentralized finance protocol Radix recently succeeded in gleaning insights from some of its heavy hitters. Needless to say, the responses make for fascinating reading.
Radix Players Talk Hodling, Exit Strategies
Radix surveyed five whales in total, posing questions related to investment philosophy, exit strategies, and also their outlook for the Radix platform itself. While some of the participants were happy to dispense wisdom in their own name, others were anonymized by their account handle.
“I’ve been investing for decades, since the late ‘80s,” said Radix’s premier whale, Shawn “Peachy” Keehn. “I’ve done the full spectrum of learning across pretty much all of the different types of investment areas – too many to list. I’m also a planner and forecaster by nature, so I always have a 5-10 year plan that I’m constantly working towards. Fundamentally, my investment philosophy is to bet on the jockey, not the horse. Basically invest in people, not a product. The right person with the wrong idea is better than the wrong person with the right idea.”
Like many self-professed long-term hodlers, Keehn prides himself on having a low time preference. “Once you understand that the things you own wind up owning you (i.e. costs for security, maintenance, insurance, etc), it becomes obvious to question each purchase for its true value to you and whether it’s a need or a want.”
Although profits were certainly taken during Bitcoin’s recent run, with $200 billion wiped off the cryptocurrency market over the course of one weekend, Keehn’s sentiment is a popular one: according to Glassnode, the number of active addresses with a balance of at least 1,000 BTC has risen to a record high of 2,421.
Another Radix whale, Pascal L., shares Keehn’s philosophy: “Find the best tech/innovation and invest early for longtime holding. Among others, my investments include IOTA, Waves, Ethereum and Bitcoin. For Radix, I currently mainly hodl – but would consider investing more from future Bitcoin/Ethereum profits.”
As far as an exit strategy, it’s rather simple: “Sell small portions on the way up to cover the initial investment costs and hodl the rest.”
The Importance of Fundamentals
A common theme running through the whales’ wisdom is fundamentals: tech and usability are of paramount importance. Or as user ‘Wonder Woman’ puts it, “I don’t do any pump-and-dump DeFi shit tokens.” The pseudonymous whale (man? woman? machine?) recently acquired $4 million worth of eXRD tokens and donated $200,000 worth of ETH to the Radix marketing budget, and is hoping to one day pay for her groceries with Radix. In Wonder Woman’s mind, the high-throughput protocol “will no doubt solve the biggest problem of cryptocurrencies – full scaling without sacrificing decentralization or security.”
Using crypto profits to bootstrap passion projects is something serial entrepreneur and investor Szilard Koos, another Radix whale, endorses. “My Tezos investment funded research into how one could heal himself through lucid dreaming. The possibilities are endless.” As far as Radix is concerned, Koos intends to “accumulate as much as possible, then hopefully stake it and let my son sell it if he wants to in 15-20 years.” To date, the whale has invested $2.5 million with another $1-2 million planned. “The more I learned about Radix, the more I liked it. Every aspect of it puts it above every other layer-1 protocol. Amazing tech.”
Kenetic Capital co-founder Jehan Chu recently referred to “a rare whale-spawning season, with ultra-high net worth and institutions recognizing the last call to build significant stores of Bitcoin.” The participation of such whales is entirely necessary if the industry is to build on its recent successes.
Encouragingly, large Bitcoin whales kept accumulating during a recent price dip, underlining their enduring faith in the asset. Soon after the price settled in the region of $35,000, President-elect Joe Biden outlined a $1.9 trillion spending package to combat the country’s economic downturn, a move likely to strengthen the whales’ bullish sentiment. Of course, a number of altcoins have also experienced a bounce, with Ethereum’s fresh ATH reflecting the incredible success of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols built on the network.
A Bright Future
Whatever the future holds, whale’s gonna whale. Bullish buying spree or violent sell-off, don’t expect them to be cashing out of crypto any time soon. For Radix whales and early supporters, the future couldn’t come soon enough. Early Bitcoiner and trader Jon Collins-Black has high hopes for the potential of the project, even if it takes time.
“I think like many of the original supporters that have waited since 2013, I am happy to continue to wait. I predict Radix can be a top 5 (or top 3) token in value market cap one day in the next 1-5 years. I’d probably sell a large stake then and hodl the rest for generational wealth to pass down to my children.”
When asked specifically about price action, Collins-Black added, “I predict at least $1 and potentially over $2 depending on how big the BTC bull market is and how successfully Radix can begin to attract developers to its project. Radix is very unique in that the founding supporters (the majority of whales) have waited 8 years and are very patient. Many will never sell any of their stake until much higher prices. Some will wait for even higher prices than I have suggested most likely.”
If one thing is clear, it’s that whales move markets.
Disclaimer: The writer has a personal relationship with the Radix community and used this relationship to source insights for this article. The Daily Chain encourages you to carry out your own research before you make any form of investment and educate yourself about how to stay safe in the crypto space. This article is informational/educational and does not represent financial advice.
