- Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto holds the most Bitcoin — for now.
- Other holders are catching up.
Bitcoin distribution is a little more concentrated than it was last year.
Wallets with more than 10,000 Bitcoin account for almost 16% of the token’s supply on Wednesday, according to bitinfocharts.com data. That’s up from nearly 15% on October 3, 2023.
But that’s not the whole story.
Many of those wallets belong to businesses that hold Bitcoin on others’ behalf — think Coinbase, which holds Bitcoin for both retail traders and the crypto curious.
It also holds the asset for many institutions that have launched Bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds this year.
In fact, Coinbase holds almost one million Bitcoin — a stockpile to rival that of the cryptocurrency’s enigmatic founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, according to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham.
There’s some debate over whether crypto exchanges that custody Bitcoin should be counted as top holders. For example, a large portion of Coinbase’s Bitcoin holdings are custodied for BlackRock. We've decided to list them both, but it means that Bitcoin held on behalf of another entity are double-counted in the top 10 list.
When it comes to single entities, MicroStrategy, the tech firm founded by Bitcoin evangelist Michael Saylor, is among the biggest.
It held more than 252,000 Bitcoin, worth about $16 billion, as of September 19, according to a regulatory filing.
Several world governments also hold stockpiles of Bitcoin confiscated from criminals, with the US being the largest.
Below are the 10 largest holders, who together control more than 17% of the world’s supply of Bitcoin:
Satoshi Nakamoto: 1.1 million Bitcoin worth $67.6 billion. The Bitcoin creator mined his horde in the months following its launch. At that time, every block mined on the network rewarded 50 Bitcoin apiece.
Coinbase: 973,694 Bitcoin worth $59.8 billion. Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in the US have mostly used crypto exchange Coinbase as a custodian — with the exception of Fidelity, which self-custodies, and VanEck, which uses Gemini.
Binance: 663,813 Bitcoin worth $40.8 billion. Despite facing regulatory crises — including a standoff with Nigerian officials that led to the jailing of an executive and former IRS agent — Binance remains the world’s largest crypto exchange.
BlackRock: 361,518 Bitcoin worth $22.2 billion. BlackRock has jumped head first into crypto this year, launching a Bitcoin ETF and a tokenised money market fund that now holds more than $500 million in US Treasuries. The firm recently published a laser-eyed screed touting Bitcoin’s potential, and CEO Larry Fink has called the cryptocurrency a hedge against optimism.
The rest of the rankings are as follows:
Fidelity Custody: 273,097 Bitcoin worth $16.7 billion.
Grayscale: 256,075 Bitcoin worth $15.7 billion.
MicroStrategy: 252,220 worth $15.5 billion.
The US government: 198,955 Bitcoin worth $12.2 billion.
Bitfinex: 196,504 Bitcoin worth $12 billion.
Kraken: 172,106 Bitcoin worth $10.5 billion.
Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.
