According to Santiment’s latest on-chain report, the concentration of top wallet holdings for major cryptocurrencies like Shiba Inu (SHIB), Ethereum, Chainlink and Toncoin shows potential market risks and opportunities driven by a small group of key players.
Shiba Inu, for example, has a significant concentration of its total supply held by the top 10 largest wallets — 61.3%, to be exact. This indicates that the price of SHIB can be influenced by the decisions of just a few holders, according to Santiment. If any of these major holders decide to sell, it could lead to some serious price drops that could expose smaller investors to more volatility.
But if these big holders keep buying or do not sell, it could mean they trust the project, and that will make things more stable for investors with smaller stakes who depend on what these big players do.
Santiment’s data shows that when these big players have a lot of holdings, it also makes things more risky. Vitalik Buterin’s burn event, which decreased the supply of SHIB, adds another layer of complexity to the coin’s market dynamics. Buterin burned 90% of his tokens and donated the rest to charity, but there are still massive holdings like the “0xdEAd” wallet, which holds over 410 trillion SHIB.
Are these Ryoshi’s wallets?
If the Santiment calculations include the dead wallet Buterin used to burn his SHIB, then the talk is that the top 10 SHIB holders hold 613 trillion SHIB, with the wallet “0xdEAd” holding 410.43 trillion SHIB worth about $6.15 billion. Another 203 trillion SHIB are spread over nine other addresses, most of which are exchanges, according to Arkham Intelligence.
Thus, the list of top addresses holding SHIB is rich, with such names as Upbit, Binance, Robinhood, Crypto Com, Bithumb and OKX. The first address that apparently does not belong to any exchange and has an unknown owner is “0x2d7A,” which holds five trillion SHIB worth $74.95 million.
Then there are five other addresses, each holding exactly five trillion SHIB. All of them were funded by “0x2d7A” three years ago and have done nothing with their tokens.
There is still a bit of mystery surrounding Shiba Inu, as its creator Ryoshi has disappeared, leaving the project on the shoulders of enthusiasts. But how much SHIB do they own? The ownership structure, with 30 trillion SHIB held in unknown addresses, also raises more questions than answers.
