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Even if you are unfamiliar with the extensive world of cryptocurrencies, chances are you are familiar with Bitcoin (BTC), the original cryptocurrency and the largest by market capitalization.
While it is known for its decentralization, there are still some giant whales out there — individuals or organizations who own a significant amount in the vast sea of cryptocurrency.
So, who owns the most Bitcoin, and why should we care about them? This article delves into the key players, highlighting institutional investors, celebrities, and even countries adopting the token as legal tender.
Key Takeaways
- As Bitcoin finds its largest market cap yet — making 2024 another winning year for BTC — we look at the top 10 holders as of September 2024.
- Who owns the most Bitcoin in the world? The top Bitcoin holder is still believed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, who reportedly holds around 1.1 million BTC across many wallets.
- Despite this large holding, the top 15 holders collectively only possess about 7.5% of the total Bitcoin supply.
- Major exchanges like Binance and Bitfinex also hold significant amounts of Bitcoin, with wallet addresses associated with these exchanges appearing in the top 10 list. These addresses hold billions of dollars’ worth of BTC.
- Celebrity Bitcoin holders include Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, Tech billionaire Tim Draper, and the Winklevoss Twins.
Who Are Bitcoin Whales?
The total supply of BTC in circulation is limited (a circulating supply of around ~19.5m and a max supply of 21m BTC), which is why many investors are curious to know who owns large amounts.
Crypto whales are individuals or organizations that own the most amount of a particular cryptocurrency. Their importance in crypto markets is crucial since they can highly influence the prices of certain cryptocurrencies.
Amer Vohora, the CEO of SwissFortress, told Techopedia: “The common perception in crypto is that it is essential to track whales, those that own large amounts of coins, because, from their trades, we can infer Bitcoin price trends.”
“With the low volume compared to more traditional financial markets, inferring what “whales” would do is a way to second guess the direction of the market.
The non-private nature of traditional wallets, with their receiving public addresses, has essentially allowed this to prevail in the market.”
In addition, whales are also vital for BTC’s liquidity, which denotes the ease with which one can buy or sell Bitcoin without causing significant Bitcoin price fluctuations.
Top BTC holders deepen the market by placing substantial buy and sell orders, providing more trading options, and reducing price volatility. Nikita Buzov, the CEO and Founder of Solace, added:
“Understanding the flow of liquidity and its positioning allows one to gauge the sentiment, predict price moves, and know of any major liquidations ahead of time.”
Who Owns the Most BTC?
So, who are the top holders of BTC? According to the Bitcoin research and analysis firm River Intelligence, Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator behind Bitcoin, is listed as the top BTC holder as of 2024. The company notes that Satoshi Nakamoto holds about 1.1m BTC tokens in about 22,000 different addresses.
In a refreshing change from many alts, CoinCarp says the top 10 holders only hold 5.6% of the BTC supply as of September 2024.
Meanwhile, BitInfoCharts, a website tracking Bitcoin billionaire and millionaire wallets, found that most of the biggest Bitcoin holders are linked to the Binance and Bitfinex crypto exchanges. According to the website, an extensive list of the top 15 Bitcoin wallets as of September 5, 2024 looks like this:
Top 15 BTC Holders (September 2024)
| Rank | Address | Wallet Owner (if Known) | Balance (BTC) | Balance (USD) |
% of Coins in Circulation
|
| 1 | 34xp4vRoCGJym3xR7yCVPFHoCNxv4Twseo | Binance (Cold Wallet) | 248,598 | $15.6Bn | 1.18% |
| 2 | bc1qgdjqv0av3q56jvd82tkdjpy7gdp9ut8tlqmgrpmv24sq90ecnvqqjwvw97 | Binance (Cold Wallet) | 180,010 | $11.3Bn | 0.86% |
| 3 | bc1ql49ydapnjafl5t2cp9zqpjwe6pdgmxy98859v2 | — | 140,625 | $8.8Bn | 0.67% |
| 4 | 3M219KR5vEneNb47ewrPfWyb5jQ2DjxRP6 | Binance (Cold Wallet) | 133,558 | $8.4Bn | 0.64% |
| 5 | bc1qazcm763858nkj2dj986etajv6wquslv8uxwczt | — | 94,643 | $5.9Bn | 0.45% |
| 6 | 1FeexV6bAHb8ybZjqQMjJrcCrHGW9sb6uF | — | 79,957 | $5.0Bn | 0.38% |
| 7 | bc1q8yj0herd4r4yxszw3nkfvt53433thk0f5qst4g | — | 78,317 | $4.9Bn | 0.37% |
| 8 | bc1qjasf9z3h7w3jspkhtgatgpyvvzgpa2wwd2lr0eh5tx44reyn2k7sfc27a4 | — | 75,354 | $4.7Bn | 0.36% |
| 9 | bc1qd4ysezhmypwty5dnw7c8nqy5h5nxg0xqsvaefd0qn5kq32vwnwqqgv4rzr | — | 73,000 | $4.6Bn | 0.35% |
| 10 | 1Ay8vMC7R1UbyCCZRVULMV7iQpHSAbguJP | — | 72,928 | $4.6Bn | 0.35% |
| 11 | bc1qa5wkgaew2dkv56kfvj49j0av5nml45x9ek9hz6 | — | 69,370 | $4.3Bn | 0.33% |
| 12 | 3LYJfcfHPXYJreMsASk2jkn69LWEYKzexb | Binance (Cold Wallet) | 68,200 | $4.3Bn | 0.32% |
| 13 | bc1qcv8h9hp5w8c4qpze0a4tdxw6qjtvg8yps23k0g3aymxx7jlesv4q4t6f65 | — | 60,229 | $3.8Bn | 0.29% |
| 14 | 1LdRcdxfbSnmCYYNdeYpUnztiYzVfBEQeC | — | 53,880 | $3.4Bn | 0.26% |
| 15 | 1AC4fMwgY8j9onSbXEWeH6Zan8QGMSdmtA | — | 51,830 | $3.2Bn | 0.25% |
While wallet addresses are public and can be easily accessed by the public, their holders’ names remain anonymous unless voluntarily disclosed by the owner themselves.
This makes knowing exactly who the biggest Bitcoin owners are a little more challenging. However, some names in higher leagues of the BTC Whale Hall of Fame include:
5 Largest Individual Bitcoin Billionaires
- Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase
- Michael Saylor, entrepreneur and CEO of MicroStrategy, reportedly owns at least 17,000 BTC (and MicroStrategy owns around 193,000 BTC)
- Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao
- Tim Draper, a tech billionaire who famously purchased 30,000 BTC at a discount when the U.S. Marshalls Service auctioned them off after seizing them from the Silk Road black market
- The Winklevoss Twins, of Facebook fame, bet heavily on BTC in 2012/2013.
According to River Intelligence, while Satoshi Nakamoto is estimated to be the biggest BTC holder, the asset’s creator is thought to have used none of the assets apart from “a few test transactions.”
Biggest Celebrity Bitcoin Owners
According to SwissFortress’s Vohora, celebrity accumulation of cryptocurrencies tends to normalize the holding of such assets amongst the public. Botanica School’s Zinin added that celebrity crypto investment could also play an “invaluable role in drawing attention” to the industry, “promoting wider adoption and understanding of cryptocurrencies”.
So, who are the top celebrity BTC holders? While data on who the most prominent celebrity Bitcoin holders are can only be found if those celebrities disclose that they own BTC, according to an article published by CoinMarketCap in 2021, the top three celebrity BTC holders were Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Mike Tyson.
In 2021, Elon Musk disclosed that even though he was against the environmental impact imposed by Bitcoin mining, the entrepreneur himself held BTC during the B-Word conference. In addition, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO added that he was planning to hold BTC long-term.
“If the price of Bitcoin goes down, I lose money. I might pump, but I don’t dump. I definitely do not believe in getting the price high and selling or anything like that… I would like to see Bitcoin succeed.”
Jack Dorsey, the former Twitter CEO, is also known to owe BTC. In a Tweet published on February 6, 2019, Dorsey states that he “only” has BTC.
I only have bitcoin https://t.co/C24xNJxuFB
— jack (@jack) February 5, 2019
In addition, Dorsey’s digital payment company Square had also invested $50 million in a block of around 5,000 Bitcoins in 2020. Mike Tyson, the prominent boxer and social media personality, has been a BTC supporter since 2015.
Although no new articles about him owning the cryptocurrency have resurfaced since then, the athlete has partnered with Bitcoin Direct to launch a Bitcoin ATM in Las Vegas. Other stars, including Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams, American rapper Snoop Dogg, and Kanye West, have also disclosed owning BTC.
10 Companies Holding the Most BTC
Over the years, corporations, financial institutions, and alternative investment funds have accumulated bitcoin holdings due to its position as the leading cryptocurrency.
According to a list compiled by CoinGecko, the top holders of Bitcoin among publicly listed companies as of September 5, 2024, were:
| # | Company | Symbol | Country | Total Bitcoin | Entry Value (USD) | Today’s Value (USD) |
% of Total BTC Supply
|
| 1 | MicroStrategy Inc. | NASDAQ | US | 226,331 | $8,330,000,000 | $12,890,577,586 | 1.08% |
| 2 | Marathon Digital Holdings | NASDAQ | US | 17,320 | $189,087,000 | $986,452,602 | 0.08% |
| 3 | Galaxy Digital Holdings | TSE: GLXY | US | 15,449 | – | $879,943,628 | 0.07% |
| 4 | Tesla, Inc. | NASDAQ | US | 11,509 | $336,000,000 | $655,489,780 | 0.06% |
| 5 | Coinbase Global, Inc | NASDAQ | US | 9,183 | $270,438,000 | $523,013,524 | 0.04% |
| 6 | Hut 8 Mining Corp | NASDAQ | CA | 9,102 | – | $518,400,207 | 0.04% |
| 7 | Riot Platforms, Inc | NASDAQ | US | 8,490 | – | $483,544,029 | 0.04% |
| 8 | Block Inc. | NYSE | US | 8,038 | $220,000,000 | $457,800,578 | 0.04% |
| 9 | CleanSpark Inc. | NASDAQ | US | 6,154 | – | $350,498,228 | 0.03% |
| 10 | Hive Digital | NASDAQ | CA | 2,287 | – | $130,255,029 | 0.01% |
5 Crypto Exchanges Holding the Most BTC
When you hold BTC on an exchange, what this really means is the exchange is holding Bitcoin on your behalf. As such, exchanges need a healthy balance.
Exchanges regularly appear in the top 100 Bitcoin wallets, especially Binance, which holds multiple BTC wallets.
As of September 2024:
- Coinbase Pro holds approximately 824,187 BTC
- Binance holds approximately 567,227 BTC
- Bitfinex holds approximately 405,076 BTC
- Kraken holds approximately 135,668 BTC
- Gemini holds approximately 129,650 BTC
Which Countries Own the Most Bitcoin?
Zinin explained:
“National BTC holdings, especially with countries like El Salvador and the Central African Republic adopting it as legal tender, can create infrastructural solutions that facilitate the integration of cryptocurrencies into the real economy.
This, in turn, can promote wider cryptocurrency distribution and usage, reducing concentration and fostering a more democratic Bitcoin ownership distribution.”
In 2021, El Salvador was the first country to make BTC a legal tender, making it mandatory for all local businesses to accept payments in BTC.
The Central African Republic followed El Salvador’s example and made Bitcoin a legal tender the following year, arguing that the cryptocurrency would help the country secure an independent financial future. Solace’s Buzov noted that national BTC holdings remain small, making asset concentration a minor issue.
However, the use of BTC as legal tender has the potential to drive further adoption and infrastructure growth around cryptocurrency, especially since the industry has faced much scrutiny in the last couple of years.
“For these lesser developed countries, it might be a strong driver to establish a vibrant ecosystem, offering valuable experience and leading international communities and other states around the globe along a similar path.”
What is the Largest Bitcoin Transaction Ever Made?
On February 23, 2024, a record-breaking 26,139 BTC was moved in one transaction — in dollars, it amounted to $1.347 billion.
However much we tried to track the wallets involved (to send them a friend request), we could find no further details.
However, the sending wallet was 1aXzEKiDJKzkPxTZy9zGc3y1nCDwDPub2, and the receiving wallet was 3M6XXpqUc8G8GuHYKQhjAWobo5aGpkdV7u.
The BTC eventually ended up at 39eYrpgAgDhp4tTjrSb1ppZ5kdAc1ikBYw, which takes position #31 in the Top 100 BTC Holders, as of September 2024.
The Bottom Line
Bitcoin’s ownership landscape is diverse, encompassing institutional investors, celebrities, and even nations adopting it as legal tender. Top BTC holders tend to influence the market and enhance its liquidity. This diverse Bitcoin ownership ecosystem and institutional and celebrity endorsements contribute to the cryptocurrency’s growth and acceptance.
As Bitcoin continues to evolve, its ownership patterns will play a pivotal role in shaping its future trajectory, affecting the cryptocurrency market and its integration into the global economy.
It’s essential to conduct in-depth research and invest solely within your financial comfort zone, acknowledging the possibility of total loss. This investment is high-risk, and you should be prepared for the absence of safeguards in adverse scenarios. Take 2 mins to learn more.
