Definition. Supply per Whale maps the accumulation and distribution behaviour of large Bitcoin holders by measuring the average balance held per whale-sized address. It is defined as the total supply owned by addresses holding 100 to 10k BTC, divided by the number of addresses in that range, and is plotted (red) alongside price (grey).

Technical. The metric aggregates two balance bands and normalizes by the address count within the same range:

• Supply per Whale = (Supply 100–1k + Supply 1k–10k) / (Addresses >= 100 BTC - Addresses >= 10k BTC)

By accounting for a larger range of wallet denominations, this construction better accounts for UTXO consolidation or splitting (dividing large holdings across multiple addresses) by larger coin holders — behavior that distorts single-band address counts.

Interpretation. Supply per Whale will increase when whales are increasing their aggregate holdings and decrease during distribution events. Because it is a per-address average rather than a raw cohort total, it is less sensitive to wallet-management artifacts: a whale splitting one address into several leaves the numerator roughly unchanged while raising the count, which the wide 100–10k band absorbs better than narrow cohort definitions. Sustained uptrends describe consolidation of supply into large hands, while declines describe either distribution to smaller holders or the arrival of many new, smaller whale-band addresses.

Notes. Coined by Charles Edwards (2021) of Capriole Investments. Built from the address supply distribution and address count metrics. For entity-based views of large-holder behavior, see Yearly Absorption Rates (Whales and Sharks).