Author: Frank, PANews
Recently, the market has been fluctuating downward, and Bitcoin and most altcoins have experienced a sharp decline. In this context, the performance of whales and whether smart money can resist the downward pressure have become hot topics in the market. In this regard, PANews has reviewed the asset performance of the top ten whales listed by Arkham in the past three months.
Most of the whales seemed unable to escape the downward pressure, with their asset levels shrinking to varying degrees, while Justin Sun and the smart money address @smartestmoney performed the best.
Justin Sun: Thanks to the increase in TRX, it outperformed BTC
Sun Yuchen's main holdings are TRX (1.9 billion, worth about $291 million), stablecoins (USDD 276 million, USDJ 95.39 million, USDT 58 million, USDC 12.17 million, worth about $446 million), ETH (13,000, worth about $30.77 million), BTC (1,450, worth about $82.99 million), BTT (101.6 billion, worth about $91.45 million). The total amount of assets is about $1.03 billion. In the past 40 days, the asset changes decreased by $17 million, and the loss rate was about 1.6%. During this period, BTC fell by about 18% overall.
Sun Yuchen's largest single coin holding is TRX, and he currently holds 1.9 billion. Since the end of June, his TRX holdings have decreased by about 200 million. However, due to the recent good trend of TRX, it has risen by 45% from August 5 to August 25, reaching a maximum of $0.17. Thanks to the rise of TRX, Sun Yuchen also realized a floating profit of about $62.7 million on this part of his holdings.
In addition, Justin Sun's stablecoin holdings have also increased significantly in the past two months. The current stablecoin holdings have reached US$446 million, accounting for 42.6% of the total positions. Therefore, during the overall fluctuation and downward trend of the market, the value of Justin Sun's position has not changed much and has basically remained at around US$1 billion. However, it is worth noting that this may not be all of Justin Sun’s positions, only the data displayed on Arkham.
Rain Lohmus: Losing the key means missing out on life's greatest reward
Rain Lohmus, founder of Estonia's LHV Bank, invested $75,000 to buy 250,000 Ethereum when Ethereum's first token was issued in 2014. Currently, these Ethereums are worth $580 million. In March this year, these assets once reached $1 billion. Unfortunately, Rain Lohmus said that he lost the private key of the wallet and may only be able to watch the value of his holdings continue to rise without being able to do anything.
In addition, he holds 21.46% of LHV Bank, which is valued at $254 million as of August 30. It seems that this investment many years ago will become the biggest return of his life.
Vitalik Buterin: Very little manipulation, advancing and retreating with ETH
Vitalik Buterin's holdings are mainly Ethereum. As of September 10, Vitalik Buterin held more than 240,000 Ethereum, worth about $560 million. However, since Vitalik Buterin does not often operate assets, his assets have also suffered a sharp decline in the past three months. At the beginning of June, Vitalik Buterin's total assets peaked at more than $900 million. In three months, his assets shrunk by $355 million, or about 40%, from the high point. In the past month, Vitalik's address has reduced by about 4,000 ETH (about $9.34 million), most of which have been transferred to a multi-signature address. Some netizens speculated that the funds may be used for donations, but Vitalik did not explain this.
Stefan Thomas: Another helpless HODL after losing the secret key
Ripple's former CEO CTO Stefan Thomas has 7,002 bitcoins in his wallet, but this is a similar story to Rain Lohmus. Stefan Thomas also lost the private key of his wallet, and there are only two chances to enter the password on the hard drive. Currently, these bitcoins are worth about $398 million, and in March this year, the highest value of these bitcoins exceeded $500 million. However, this once again proves that HODL may be the best way to accumulate wealth, but remember to keep the private key of each wallet.
James Fickel: ETH's firm bulls are educated by the market
James Fickel, founder of the Amaranth Foundation, is a staunch Ethereum bull. Before August this year, he had been increasing his ETH positions for several months, and borrowed WBTC several times and exchanged it for ETH to go long on the ETH/BTC exchange rate. According to on-chain analyst Ember, James Fickel's ETH/BTC exchange rate cost was about 0.054 from January to July. Currently, James Fickel still has 2,316 bitcoins on loan, worth about $131 million. The ETH/BTC exchange rate has fallen to 0.04, and based on this calculation, he has lost about 25.9%, or about $33.96 million.
Currently, James Fickel’s total assets are about 391 million US dollars. In May this year, his assets peaked at over 600 million US dollars, shrinking by about 35%. Recently, James Fickel has begun to significantly reduce his ETH holdings and return WBTC.
Patricio Worthalter: $100 million lost in three months
POAP founder Patricio Worthalter is ranked sixth on the Arkham Top Ten Whales list, and currently holds assets of approximately $160 million. In the past three months, Patricio Worthalter's asset returns have fallen sharply, down $100 million. His main holdings are ETH, RPL, ENS, etc. These assets have fallen by more than 35% in the past three months, with RPL falling by 46%. This has also directly led to the shrinkage of Patricio Worthalter's assets. However, the main shrinkage still comes from ETH. Since June, the shrinkage value of ETH holdings has been about $90 million.
@luggisdoteth: With the decline of ETH, the assets have shrunk by nearly half
The current holdings of the giant whale @luggisdoteth are worth about $39.96 million. His main holding is also ETH, with about 10,070 ETH, worth about $23.72 million, accounting for more than half of the total holdings. In the past three months, the highest value of his holdings reached $69 million. Due to the decline of ETH, it has shrunk by nearly $30 million.
@smartestmoney: The legendary trader who beat the market
The owner of the smart money address @smartestmoney is a legendary trader. On the Arkham dashboard, his assets in this address are about $1 million. However, according to CoinMarketManager data, @smartestmoney has realized a total profit of $48.84 million since the start of trading in 2020 until August 2024. At present, most of his assets are in exchanges. Judging from the transaction records, @smartestmoney is good at futures trading, and his profit curve has been upward in the past three months.
Winslow Strong: Heavy BTC holdings, little change
The address of Winslow Strong, a partner of Cluster Capital, currently holds about $28.17 million. His main position is WBTC, which is about 440. In the past three months, Winslow Strong's account has not changed much, shrinking by only $2.58 million. The main loss comes from the holding of GRT, which has fallen by about 52% in three months.
@0xVladilena: Heavy ETH staking and lending
The smart money address @0xVladilena currently has less than $10,000 on the chain. From the trajectory, his assets were transferred to Ether.fi and AAVE not long ago, and his major holdings are also ETH. Currently, @0xVladilena holds 31,000 ETH in AAVE, worth more than $77 million. In addition, he has also borrowed 30,000 ETH for pledge.
