"Whales, large holders of Bitcoin (BTC), are increasingly using privacy-protecting transactions to accumulate their holdings. This trend has been observed over the past two years, with the average number of transactions involving the Bitcoin mixing service CoinJoin increasing more than threefold. While some may speculate that this increase in privacy-focused transactions is due to hackers laundering stolen funds, data suggests otherwise. The total amount of Bitcoin stolen by hackers this year, approximately $2.2 billion, represents only 0.5% of BTC's realized market cap of $377 billion. Instead, it is more likely that whales are using privacy transactions to transfer funds to institutional investors. This is supported by the fact that 1.55 million BTC flowed in from sources such as ETFs, MicroStrategy, and custodial wallets this year. By using privacy transactions, whales can conceal the origin and destination of their funds, making it more difficult for competitors or regulators to track their activities."

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