(Kitco News) – Bitcoin is one of the most unequally distributed assets in the world, with just under half a percent of all bitcoin investors owning more than 80% of all bitcoins, and should they liquidate, the market could see a substantial sell-off, said Ryan Giannotto, director of Research at GraniteShares ETFs.
“It’s a major challenge for the asset class: it’s intended to be a financially democratizing force, yet it is so profoundly distributed in an unequal fashion. It’s really unlike anything we’ve ever seen. This is one of the perils of bitcoin investing that go unreported, undiscussed,” Giannotto said. “It is a seriously cornered asset class.”
Five hundredths of a percent of bitcoin investors control over 40% of all bitcoin, and just under half a percent of all bitcoin investors control over 5/6ths, or 83%, of bitcoin, he noted.
Most of these larger stakeholders, or “whales” as they are referred to as in the crypto community, are early adopters of bitcoin.
If these early adopters of bitcoin were to sell their holdings altogether, that would exceed the daily trading volume, effectively “wiping out” the asset, Giannotto said.
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