One of the more interesting data points to look at for any asset is the distribution of holders. The distribution can play a large part in the trading dynamics of the asset as well as broader market sentiment. Additionally, because blockchain technology is entirely public, the distribution of holders is known, offering unparalleled insights into Bitcoin's dynamics.
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Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto, in general, are known to have many large holders — sometimes referred to as whales — who influence the price with large trades. Others can see these trades and make moves in response, often creating more volatility. Additionally, some whales acquire tokens and hold them for long periods. This can effectively lower the amount of the token supply that can be traded, which can have a positive impact on the price. Large token holders can have a huge impact on the price of Bitcoin.
The price of Bitcoin has gone up astronomically over the past decade. This has allowed some small investors at the beginning of BTC's history to amass huge wallets. Since its launch, Bitcoin is up more than 575,000%. A handful of institutions have gotten involved with Bitcoin in recent years. Some examples include MicroStrategy Inc., which owns more than 1% of the total supply, as well as BlackRock Inc., which launched a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) earlier this year. The largest Bitcoin holders are a mix of early investors and institutional buyers.
With that in mind, the actual numbers behind the Bitcoin distribution are still surprising:
- 46.8 million wallet addresses have more than $1.
- 10,000 wallets have more than $10 million in Bitcoin.
- 100,000 wallets have more than $1 million.
- The top 105 wallets hold nearly 3 million BTC, which is roughly 15% of the total supply.
- The top 2,000 wallets hold 40% of the total supply.
- The smallest 25% of addresses hold less than 0.03% of the supply.
- The largest wallet address holds ~250,000 BTC or 1.26% of the total supply.
While this may seem extremely concentrated, it is less concentrated than other cryptocurrencies. For example, the largest 15 Dogecoin (DOGE) wallets account for 50% of the total supply. Bitcoin is still very concentrated as compared to most other assets.
Additionally, the data does not paint the true picture of Bitcoin supply. Some investors hold their tokens across many wallet addresses. For example, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, allegedly holds 600,000-1.1 million BTC across an estimated 20,000 wallet addresses. While he is likely the largest holder, it does not show up in the distribution because it is spread across a huge number of wallets.
Even though the Bitcoin chain is entirely public and viewable, there are still ways to get around it. This ultimately means that the supply of Bitcoin is even more concentrated than the surface-level distribution.
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