Who Owns Most Bitcoin?

A significant number of individuals, companies, funds, and governments have been gathering Bitcoins over time. The reason for this is that there will only ever be a maximum of 21 million Bitcoins in circulation. Although many Bitcoins have been lost in the early days before Bitcoin had much value, the majority of it is currently held by individuals. However, companies and funds are also increasingly accumulating Bitcoin. 58.21% of available bitcoins are held in approximately 6,952 wallets, meaning less than 0.01% of total BTC holders own almost 60% of the cryptocurrency's supply.

Individuals

1. Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's anonymous creator, is estimated to own 1.1 million bitcoins. Satoshi was an early Bitcoin miner who kept the system going before people paid much attention. This 1.1 million bitcoins worth over $77 billion is still sitting untouched across 22,000 addresses over 15 years later and may never move.
2. The Winklevoss twins are rumored to hold approximately 70,000 bitcoins. As per the information provided, the twins received $20 million worth of Facebook stock as a settlement, which later turned out to be worth $200 million when Facebook, now known as Meta, went public. They invested some of that money to buy 1% of all the bitcoin in the world, which was trading at around $10 per piece at that time.
3. Tim Draper, co-founder of Venture Capital is estimated to hold over 30,000 bitcoins. On June 27, 2014, Draper purchased nearly 30,000 bitcoins for approximately US$19 million. The bitcoins had been seized from the Silk Road by the US Marshals Service and auctioned to the public.
4. Michael Saylor, the executive chairman and co-founder of Micro-Strategy shared that he owns 17,732 bitcoins alongside the company holdings.

Several other tech billionaires own a substantial amount of Bitcoin such as Elon Musk (10,080), Jack Dorsey (4,700), and Mark Zuckerberg.

Companies

1. Micro-Strategy owns 214,246 bitcoins or 1% of the total supply and has been buying more at a rapid pace. On August 11, 2020, the CEO of MicroStrategy announced that the company was investing $250 million in Bitcoin for the long-term.
2. Block One, the company behind a failed cryptocurrency, is still rumored to hold the 164,000 bitcoin it raised for launching its project.
3. Tether, the Stablecoin company has accumulated 66,465 Bitcoin.

There are a dozen of other companies that hold thousands of Bitcoin on their balance sheet and many exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, Bitfinex, and Robinhood that hold large amounts of Bitcoin for clients.

Funds

Since the ETF approval in January 2024, funds have been rapidly accumulating Bitcoin on behalf of their clients. A year after approval, they are expected to hold 10% of the total supply. The biggest funds are Grayscale 303,683 BTC, Blackrock's iShare 274,462 BTC, and Fidelity 152,465 BTC.

Governments

Only El Salvador (2,381 BTC) and Bhutan (actively mining) have accumulated Bitcoin on the open market. Other countries such as the United States (207,189), China (194,000), the UK, and Germany have confiscated Bitcoin from companies that broke laws and will typically auction these holdings off.