I last reported the numbers in a post that covered through December 31, 2018.

https://busy.org/@taskmaster4450/steem-whales-are-losing-their-power-the-system-is-not-broken-report-through-12-31-18-year-end

Each month I monitor what is going on with new accounts and the amount of MVests in each category. I do this to determine what trends are taking place.

Now that we are at end of month, time to post the numbers again.

I want to thank @arcange for the work done each day compiling these numbers and making the charts.

We have 3 months worth of data for analysis purposes to see how the 90 trend might be.

The first chart is from August of 2017, the month I started on Steem. It is placed here to provide some contrast to see how things are changing over a longer period of time.

Here is the breakdown.

8/1/2017

![image.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmTqYQggdMfyUA5sSb9yvbbwFsx57etKXAJ4J2vrPnspfF)

The total MVests here is 336,932.

On a percentage basis:

Whales 75.44%
Orcas 14.86%
Dolphins 7.16%
Minnows 2.14%
Red Fish .01%
Inactive .40%

11/30/2018

![image.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmPcUt1CWu2YCUJ1FMUG17rN3H6AiWfgZYrVRTCm4bzyXw)

The total MVests here is 405,801

On a percentage basis:

Whales 57.96%
Orcas 19.30%
Dolphins 12.82%
Minnows 6.54%
Red Fish 1.13%
Inactive 2.26%


12/31/2018

![image.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmWK5E29CQQoChtps9UhZnwWLWyuXzGUvaHHwwPcuZFADh)

The total MVests here is 412,175

On a percentage basis:

Whales 57.13%
Orcas 20.10%
Dolphins 12.95%
Minnows 6.47%
Red Fish 1.06%
Inactive 2.29%

The change over that time period is as such:

Whales -1.43%
Orcas +4.14%
Dolphins +1.01%
Minnows -1.07%
Red Fish -6.19%
Inactive +1.32%

1/31/2019

![image.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmQEmxRKHUc5PA9fr9e8Wv5bQsCbfRjvYsmN3nQ2v6QDCJ)

The total MVests here is 404,463.

On a percentage basis:

Whales 55.82%
Orcas 20.79%
Dolphins 13.29%
Minnows 6.67%
Red Fish 1.08%
Inactive 2.34%

The change over that time period is as such:

Whales -1.27%
Orcas +3.43%
Dolphins +2.62%
Minnows +3.09%
Red Fish +1.88%
Inactive +2.18%

Latest charts found in this post:

https://busy.org/@arcange/steem-statistics-20190131-en

So what does this all tell us?

To start: The system is working as designed.

The Whales are losing power.

This month, we obviously saw Steemit Inc start to power down.  Many took this as a negative but I look at it through the lens of these numbers.  Every group got more powerful because of this.  Do not forget, it is only SP that is factored in to voting power for posts and Witnesses.  

Some will say that STEEM is still in the hands of Steemit Inc.  That is true but it is not in the system.  We cannot focus upon what is on the exchanges.  There could be those holding hundreds of thousands of STEEM in wallets on exchanges.  Do we factor them in also.  Or how about the Bitcoin millionaire who could become a Whale in a few minutes?  

The only think that determines stake on the blockchain is Steem Power.

There are now 11,461 accounts who qualify as either Dolphin or Minnow. It was only a few months back when the total accounts above the approximate 500 SP (level to be a Minnow) was under 10K.

On November 30, 2018, the Whales and Orcas had 313,518 MVests (77.25% of the total); on December 31, 2018, 318,339 MVests (77.23% of the total)...a decrease of .025%....On January 31, 2019, 309,865 MVests (76.61% of the total)...an decrease of .8%.

It is important to remember these numbers are owned SP. This is not delegated. Since @steemhunt came into being, a lot of SP was delegated so it is equivalent to a Whale yet does not register as such. This is vital since that SP is used to upvote content by the members who post on that application. Ergo, we have a Whale (equivalent) upvoting smaller accounts.

In conclusion, the numbers are changing over time. It might not be happening as fast as some like but it is taking place. Continual working of the system does yield dividends.

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