How many crypto traders beat holding Bitcoin?
Sharpe ranks every on-chain trader on its public leaderboard against one alternative: buying Bitcoin and holding it. Over the 90 days to 11 November 2026, Bitcoin rose 16.6%, from $63,425 to $73,928 at the daily close. About one trader in ten on the board did better than that by enough to clear the Bitcoin line.
Key takeaways
- About one in ten on-chain traders on Sharpe's board finished their latest 90 days above the Bitcoin line.
- About seven in ten lost money outright over the same stretch, while Bitcoin rose 16.6%.
- Of the traders who made money, about three in four still finished below the Bitcoin line.
- The typical trader's return beat Bitcoin's on about four days in ten.
Who is on the board
The board holds wallets that anyone has added, measured from the trades they made on the chain. About four in five are Solana wallets and the rest are Ethereum and Base, and most of them trade small tokens rather than majors. A wallet is ranked once it has 25 scored days, $50 at work on a typical day and a price for at least 60% of what it trades, and half the ranked wallets have 72 scored days or more out of the 90. Each one is measured over its own latest 90 days.
That makes the board a sample of active on-chain traders, and not of every crypto trader. People who hold Bitcoin on an exchange and rarely trade are not on it, and nor is anyone whose trading is on perpetual futures.
Where traders sit
A trader's tier comes from Edge, which measures how far their daily returns beat Bitcoin's, discounted by how much evidence the record has. Edge 2,000 is the Bitcoin line, the floor of Platinum.
Table 1. The board by tier, 12 November 2026.
| Tier | Edge from | Share of ranked traders |
|---|---|---|
| Challenger | seats among Masters | 0.9% |
| Master | 3,000 | 3.6% |
| Diamond | 2,500 | 3.3% |
| Platinum | 2,000 | 2.1% |
| Gold | 1,500 | 3.6% |
| Silver | 1,000 | 2.8% |
| Bronze | 500 | 4.8% |
| Iron | 0 | 78.9% |
Platinum and above make up 9.8% of the board. Iron holds 79%. It is the widest band on the ladder, reaching from well below the line to the bottom of the scale.
Making money is not the same as beating Bitcoin
About three in ten traders on the board made money over their 90 days. Of those, about three in four still finished below the Bitcoin line. In a quarter when Bitcoin rose 16.6%, a gain of a few per cent is a loss against the alternative, and a gain that came from two or three lucky days is discounted for how little evidence it rests on.
The rest, about seven in ten, lost money in dollars outright, over a stretch in which holding Bitcoin made 16.6%.
Days won
A day is won when the trader's return that day beats Bitcoin's. The typical trader on the board won about 40% of their scored days, and about one in eight won more than half. A trader can lose most days and still finish ahead, when the days they win are large, which is why the ladder ranks the whole record and not the count of good days. It also explains how a single run can carry a record a long way, and why that record is discounted for it.
What these numbers do not say
They describe one 90-day stretch in one part of the market. A different quarter, or a board of exchange traders, would give different rates. Nor does a rank above the line promise the next 90 days. When we split records in time, a score below the line said a good deal about what followed, and a score at the top said much less. The methodology sets out that test, with every rule behind the ladder.
What the numbers do show is how rare it is to beat the market a trader is already in. Most of the board lost money over a quarter in which holding Bitcoin made money.
Check a wallet
Any address on the leaderboard, or any Solana or Ethereum wallet of your own, can be pasted into Sharpe without signing up, to see its days against Bitcoin's and where it sits on the ladder.