Wallet Waves (%)
Wallet-size cohort decomposition normalized as percentage of total BTC supply.
What is it?
Wallet Waves in percentage expresses each wallet-size cohort's share of circulating supply. The six bands sum to 100% at all times. Normalization removes the scale effect introduced by mechanical supply growth (halvings), enabling direct cohort-structure comparison across distant market cycles.
How to read
The stacked bands display each cohort's relative share. The vertical axis is a percentage capped at 100. Compression of retail (shrimp-crab) at the bottom paired with whale band expansion at the top illustrates concentration. The reverse indicates circulating-parc decentralization.
Key zones
There is no statistical target band. The interpretation reference is the structural distribution state at time t compared with the same prior-cycle phase. A strongly growing shrimp share versus earlier cycles indicates broadening retail adoption independent of price.
What to observe
Watch relative changes between equivalent-phase cycles: for example, compare the humpback share at the end of a prior bull run versus the end of the current bull run. A structural decrease in the humpback share at equivalent phases indicates institutional diffusion.
Historical context
The decade after 2009 saw extreme concentration (humpback >80%) gradually diluted by network discovery and entry of new actors. The 2017 bull run marked the first massive retail dilution, confirmed by the 2020-2021 bull run and the 2024+ cycle. The spot ETF launched in January 2024 rebuilt a custodial octopus-whale share.
Expert notes
The percentage view hides absolute cohort growth. For complete institutional analysis, read alongside the BTC-native variant. Normalization to circulating supply ignores lost or inaccessible supply (Satoshi era, seed loss), which if precisely known would reduce the denominator.
Common mistakes to avoid
A stable humpback share in percentage can mask massive absolute growth: if total supply grows and the share stays identical, the humpback cohort has absorbed the same fraction of new issuance. Do not interpret relative stability as absence of movement.
Programmatic access
REST API
curl -sS \
'https://api.trinityinsights.io/api/v1/onchain/wallet-waves-pct/history?days=90' \
-H 'X-API-Key: $TRINITY_API_KEY'MCP server
{
"tool": "get_chart_value",
"metric_id": "wallet-waves-pct",
"timeframe": "1y"
}Required tier: free. See the pricing grid for the tier list and the MCP documentation for multi-client configuration.
Related metrics
Institutional disclaimer
Trinity Insights is an educational and analytical tool. The metric above does not constitute investment advice. Trinity Insights is not a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) registered under MiCA Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. See the full disclaimer.