Big Companies Acquiring BTC Amid Bullrun: Meet the New Bitcoin Whales
Big companies buying Bitcoin? Semlar Scientific becomes the latest Bitcoin whale, acquiring 581 BTC and driving up its stock price by 25%.
Semlar Scientific (SMLR) shook the market Tuesday by snapping up 581 bitcoins for its treasury and entering the Bitcoin whale fray.
The bold move sent its stock price rocketing 25% in early U.S. trading.
With a pre-surge market cap of under $200 million, Semler held $62.9 million in cash and equivalents at the end of Q1. The $40 million spent on bitcoins averages out to approximately $68,850 per coin.
“Bitcoin is now a major asset class with more than $1 trillion of market value,” said company Chairman Eric Semler.
“We believe it has unique characteristics as a scarce and finite asset that can serve as a reasonable inflation hedge and safe haven amid global instability. We also believe its digital, architectural resilience makes it preferable to gold, which has a market value of approximately 10 times that of bitcoin.”
Now that Semler has become a Bitcoin whale, who are the other whales it is competing against – who is moving this space today?
Why Bitcoin Whales Have So Much Influence
Bitcoin whales, anyone holding 10,000+ BTCs, dominate the market.
Bitinfocharts notes around 80 of these wallets, collectively managing 8% of all Bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s enigmatic creator, reportedly owns 1.1 million bitcoins—5% of the total—making him one of the richest men (or alien creature walking among us) on the planet,
Last January, several noteworthy asset managers became whales after the approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs.
#Bitcoin whales are back, buying aggressively after a 2-month lull. Accumulation is on the rise as whales see value in the dip.
Up only…#btc $btc— Platinum_Capital (@platinumcapit) May 28, 2024
According to K33 analysts, Grayscale is the largest Bitcoin holder with 450,000 coins, followed by BlackRock at 150,000 and Fidelity with 102,000.
Other Top Bitcoin Whales You Don’t Know About
Since 2008, global law enforcement has seized vast quantities of Bitcoin from illegal operations, inadvertently making “the law” a Bitcoin whale.
Here are some other BTC whales to know about:
- MicroStrategy: Michael Saylor’s company owns around 193,000 bitcoins. It started accumulating Bitcoin in 2020 and celebrated each purchase with viral tweets.
- Block One: Crypto-software company Block One initially purchased 140,000 bitcoins and has continued buying since.
- Mt Gox: The first major crypto exchange, Mt Gox, lost about 850,000 bitcoins in 2011 due to hacks. Approximately 82,000 bitcoins remain in a famous wallet address, untouched since the hack.
- Winklevoss Twins: The infamous angel investors of Facebook who got screwed over are now prominent crypto-entrepreneurs, owning around 70,000 bitcoins in a 2017 interview.
DISCOVER: How to Buy Bitcoin ETF in June 2024 – Beginners Guide
Bottom Line: A Bold Move by Semler Scientific
Semler Scientific’s bet on Bitcoin might not make them an official whale but its further evidence that bigger, more traditional companies are entering the space.
You no longer have to be Elon Musk tweeting dank memes about Diablo 4 to be an investor in Bitcoin. That’s a noticeable improvement.
EXPLORE: Crypto Whales Rinsed By Latest Phishing Scam – Here’s How to Avoid $6.9M Losses
Disclaimer: Crypto is a high-risk asset class. This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice. You could lose all of your capital.
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