Crypto whale meaning is used to describe an individual or organisation that possesses a huge amount of a particular cryptocurrency. There is no exact cutoff threshold for this definition, but it is somewhat agreed upon that a Bitcoin whale should hold at least 1,000 BTC. A whale may also be defined as an individual that has a large enough number of coins or tokens to cause a significant impact on the market prices, either by buying or selling large amounts.
This term can be applied to both individuals and organisations. An organisation that holds a substantial amount of cryptocurrencies is able to cause the market to fluctuate. For instance, some whales in the crypto space are investment groups like Pantera Capital and Fortress Investment Group.
Note that most of those big players do not typically trade on conventional cryptocurrency markets, as their large orders could overwhelm the volume available on the order books. Instead, they buy and sell coins off the exchange books, in what is known as Over the Counter (OTC) trading.
In Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchains, whales have a significant influence in on-chain governance processes because they can stake a large amount of funds for larger voting power. For these chains, the presence of whales can be a good sign in terms of stability as they have strong incentives to act honestly and help the network grow. On the other hand, having whales controlling the majority of funds can bring a negative effect in regards to power centralization. They have the power to negatively impact a blockchain if they choose to.
In conclusion, crypto whale meaning is an organisation or individual with large amounts of cryptocurrency, large enough to affect the market if they were to buy or sell them.
