Cryptocurrencies have experienced significant growth over the years and have attracted individuals with different financial backgrounds. Currently, around 7% of the world's population has used cryptocurrencies at some point, and this number is expected to increase in the coming years with spot ETF approvals and the upcoming bull run.

Using a categorization method from Glassnode, let’s categorize the holders of cryptocurrencies into eight classes. This method is based on Bitcoin although we will cover how to categorize altcoins using similar metrics.

1) Humpbacks: Most people will have heard of whales in crypto but humpbacks are the highest players in the food chain. They are crypto wallets that have more than 5,000 Bitcoins. They are usually owned by large groups or corporations and people who got into Bitcoin very early.

2) Whales: Whales are the next in the food chain and are those wallet addresses with 1,000 to 5,000 Bitcoins. Like humpbacks, their actions have a very significant impact on the crypto market.

3) Sharks: Sharks are those addresses with 500 to 1,000 Bitcoins. Organizations that do not fall under humpbacks and whales are usually in this category.

4) Dolphins: They have 100 to 500 Bitcoins in their wallet. Current trends have suggested that sharks and dolphins are increasing while whales and humpbacks are decreasing.

5) Fish: These are investors that have 50 to 100 Bitcoins in their wallets.

6) Octopus: They have 10 to 50 Bitcoins in their wallets and their actions usually have a negligible effect on the market.

7) Crabs: Crabs are at the bottom of the food chain and hold 1 to 10 Bitcoins in their wallets.

8) Shrimps: Also at the bottom, they have less than 1 Bitcoin in their wallets. It is noteworthy that crabs and shrimps constitute the highest number of Bitcoin holders, distributing the power on the blockchain.

NOTE: Since one of the founding ideologies of blockchains is decentralization, it is beneficial to shift the holders of cryptocurrencies to the crabs and shrimps category. This is because we do not want the centralization of power to the few humpbacks and whales, a concept that is initially frowned upon in blockchain. Whales and humpbacks can gather so much energy and be able to control or massively influence the market, so the industry is tending towards reducing their numbers. Using that logic, 10,000 people holding 0.1 BTC each are far better than one person holding 900 BTC and the remaining 9,999 people holding 0.01 BTC each.

Hierarchy in Alts

Most of the holder ranking systems use Bitcoin as the base asset. However, to get better perspectives, we need to analyse the metrics to conform with holders of other coins. Let’s use the percentage of circulating supply to determine hierarchies for other coins. For instance, a Humpback holds 5000 BTC, around 0.03% of the current supply. If we use the same metric on Ethereum, a Humpback would need to own around 30,000 ETH. Now, let’s sort the holders of other coins as follows:

altcoins

What crypto hierarchy do you belong to? Respond in the comment section below.