Arkham Intelligence Explained: How Whale Tracking Works in Crypto

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Arkham Intelligence uses AI to deanonymize blockchain addresses, enabling precise tracking of whale portfolios and transactions across multiple chains.
2. Whale movements, such as platform inflows signaling potential sales, provide predictive insights into market trends when analyzed through on-chain data.
3. Entity labeling in Arkham links pseudonymous wallets to real-world owners, allowing verification of holdings for influencers, funds, and institutions.
4. Custom alerts and visualizers in the platform facilitate real-time monitoring, assisting users anticipate price impacts from large transfers.
5. Integrating whale tracking with macro metrics, such as active addresses, enhances decision-making but requires contextual interpretation to avoid misreading isolated events.

Traders and academics might have a large advantage by learning what “whales,” or major participants, do. stands itself as a key player in this field, focusing on on-chain analysis to follow and make sense of blockchain data.

On-chain analysis examines the public ledger of blockchain transactions to understand how assets move, how much money is in wallets, and how the market behaves. 

This article looks at how Arkham tracks whales using tried-and-true methods from blockchain analytics. Users can turn raw transaction data into useful insights that reveal trends shaping how the market works using tools like Arkham.

What Does “On-Chain Analysis” Mean?

is the process of extracting useful information from a blockchain’s immutable, public transaction records, including wallet addresses, transfer amounts, timestamps, and other details.

On-chain analysis, on the other hand, examines real blockchain activity to identify basic economic indicators such as fund flows and holder behaviour. Technical analysis, on the other hand, looks at price charts and trends. 

This method assists traders, researchers, and investigators make decisions by confirming market assumptions. Core parts include keeping an eye on wallet balances to view who owns what and looking at transactions to view where money is going. 

For example, blockchain data is pseudonymous, meaning that addresses don’t automatically reveal who they belong to.

However, advanced platforms use AI and their own methods to connect with real-world entities such as people, finances, or organisations. This deanonymization is significant for putting large-scale actions into context, as it allows users to examine facts and identify trends in how institutions act.

What Crypto Whales Are and How They Work

As anyone, an individual, an investment fund, a company, or even a government, who owns a lot of a cryptocurrency and may affect its market price by purchasing or tradeing it. Thresholds are diverse for each asset. For BTC, it might begin at 500 to 1,000 BTC, while for ETH, it might begin at 5,000 to 10,000 ETH, which is worth millions of dollars at current prices. 

Whales typically have more than one address, and their movements might show patterns in the market as a whole, such as accumulation (purchaseing and keeping) or distribution (tradeing).

Whale activity usually shows up in wallet-to-wallet transfers, which could be normal for security or organisational reasons, or in platform flows, where inflows to trading platforms suggest possible trades (bearish signals), and outflows suggest (bullish signals). Historical instances show how this might happen. 

For example, when the U.S. authorities sent about 10,000 BTC from seized wallets to platforms in 2023–2024, BTC’s price dropped by 2–5% because people thought there was tradeing pressure. It is thought that whales have better information or resources; thus, keeping an eye on these groups might assist you predict market changes.

How Arkham Intelligence Tracks Whales

Arkham Intelligence is a platform that uses AI-powered technologies to make wallets public and monitor whale activity across multiple chains, including BTC, ETH, Solana, Avalanche, and Tron.

The technology tags more than 800 million addresses associated with more than 450,000 entities, including platforms, funds, and influencers. This lets users view portfolios, transaction histories, and movements in real time.

The first step is entity labelling, where Arkham’s AI, called Ultra, uses pattern recognition and data aggregation to find wallet owners. Users may then follow transactions using unique hashes that record the sender, recipient, amounts, and timestamps.

Arkham lets you set alerts for large moves that are peculiar to whales, like transfers that go over a certain amount or include well-known high-profile people. 

These alerts can be set without a specified threshold. For instance, keeping an eye on the top holders shows concentration risks. When a venture capital firm like Andreessen Horowitz moved $10 million in MKR to an platform in July 2023, the price dropped by 12.5%, suggesting it may have anticipated future price movements.

Another significant measure is platform flows, which show red for deposits (bearish) and green for withdrawals (bullish). Arkham collects this information over time and shows trends, such as USDC outflows from September 2022 to August 2023, which means that money was leaving the ecosystem.

The software also supports multichain tracking, which shows asset bridges like Stargate Finance and how they behave across networks. 

The Visualiser connects things in real-time graphs, while the Tracer traces the movement of funds over time, assisting people find patterns for copy trading or risk assessment. Tracking institutions and businesses enhances whale analysis.

Arkham assists you keep an eye on ETF wallets for inflows (bullish demand signals) now that are legal. On-chain data can be used to monitor companies’ treasuries, such as MicroStrategy’s, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in addition to regular financial reports.

Key Features and Benefits of Arkham for Tracking Whales

Arkham is a unique analytics tool because it offers many capabilities specifically designed for . Users receive alerts and custom dashboards (via email, Telegram, or webhooks) when significant events occur, such as whale transactions or behaviours specific to that entity.

The Intel platform makes it simple to purchase and trade on-chain data, while the Oracle AI assistant gives you insights based on queries.

One benefit is that you can get an edge in the market by watching what “smart money” does, such as venture capitalists or successful traders. On-chain data backs up what people say on social media. For example, you can check to view if an influencer keeps promoting tokens for a long time.

It also reduces risk by identifying wallets associated with hackers or unusual patterns, including dormant addresses that come back to life later than years, such as a BTC wallet that moved 400 BTC in April 2023 later than being inactive for more than 10 years.

Arkham is better than other tools at identifying and visualising entities. It works well with platforms like Glassnode for macro metrics and Whale Alert for real-time alerts. However, users should be aware of several restrictions, such as the possibility that AI labelling may be wrong or the need to evaluate transfers in context to avoid overreacting to them.

Putting Whale Tracking into largeger Plans

Arkham’s whale-tracking uses macro-on-chain variables like active addresses, transaction volumes, and total value locked in DeFi protocols to gauge network health and user activity. Cohort analysis of BTC group holders by how long they have held it, which can assist determine sentiment. 

Long-term holder ratios can show whale confidence. In the past, sales of entities by groups like the ETH Foundation have indicated price peaks on ETH. For example, in May 2021, they sold 35,053 ETH. 

Best methods stress recognising patterns over single incidents. For example, search for groups of similar transactions over several days, think about (accumulation in fear phases is bullish), and compare with what others are saying on sites like Crypto Twitter.

Risks include market manipulation through spoofing or delayed replies, underscoring the importance of tracking whales as part of a larger plan, not just as a single tool.

FAQs

What defines a crypto whale?

A crypto whale is an entity holding enough of an asset to influence its price, with thresholds varying by cryptocurrency, such as 500–1,000 BTC for BTC or 5,000–10,000 ETH for ETH.

How does Arkham Intelligence identify whale wallets?

Arkham employs its Ultra AI to label and link addresses to entities based on patterns, aggregating data from over 800 million addresses to reveal owners, such as funds or influencers.

Why are platform flows significant in whale tracking?
Inflows to platforms often indicate potential tradeing (bearish), while outflows suggest long-term holding (bullish), providing signals on market sentiment and liquidity.

Can whale tracking predict market crashes?

While patterns like steady distributions from large holders can signal downturns, as viewn in historical ETH Foundation sales, it is not foolproof and should be combined with other analyses.

What are the limitations of using Arkham for whale monitoring?

AI labels may occasionally be inaccurate, and isolated transfers can be misleading without broader context, potentially leading to overreliance or delayed market reactions.

References

• A Complete Guide to On-Chain Analysis:  
• How to Track Crypto Whale Movements?: