Article compiled by: Block unicorn

Introduction

If different wallets are merged into one entity, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is the largest holder, holding 1.096 million bitcoins (approximately 77 billion USD). Arkham's label comes from a known mining pattern called the "Patoshi pattern" and includes Satoshi's only (known) address where bitcoins were spent. Research indicates that he obtained this bitcoin as a reward for mining 22,000 blocks.

In terms of individual addresses, the wallet holding the most bitcoins is Binance's cold wallet, which holds nearly 250,000 bitcoins.You can also view the entities that hold the most bitcoins. An entity refers to a collection of crypto addresses controlled by the same person or organization (such as an exchange, DeFi protocol, or company).

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that operates on a blockchain (a peer-to-peer network). Due to these characteristics, no one truly owns the entire Bitcoin network, but individuals can access and own bitcoins through their private keys.

Bitcoin's price skyrocketed, reaching around $126,000 in October 2025, with a market cap peaking at $2.48 trillion, creating multiple Bitcoin billionaires and other wealthy holders. In this article, we will examine individuals, companies, and wallets that have become crypto whales based on on-chain data and their own public statements, and investigate the number of bitcoins they hold.

Summary

• Satoshi Nakamoto is the largest holder of Bitcoin, owning approximately 1.1 million bitcoins, valued at about 77 billion USD at current prices.

• Coinbase is the second-largest entity, holding 982,000 bitcoins.BlackRock holds 775,000,Binance holds 655,000,Fidelity Custody holds 460,000, and Strategy holds 443,000 (although Strategy controls 738,000 bitcoins, due to its comprehensive custody approach, some of these bitcoins are on-chain attributed toFidelity Custody).

• The U.S. government holds 328,000 bitcoins. These bitcoins come from asset seizures of criminal organizations.

• There are also several unidentified bitcoin billionaires. There are many wallets, most of which have remained inactive since the initial influx of bitcoins.

Largest Bitcoin Wallets

We categorize wallets associated with individuals or organizations as "entities". Entities are useful because large holders rarely keep all their assets in one wallet for security and operational reasons. By grouping all associated wallets into one entity, we can more accurately and comprehensively present the total holdings and influence of that entity in the cryptocurrency market.

However, individual wallets can also be viewed without categorizing them into their respective entities. The following table lists the largest individual wallets. The top four are cold wallets controlled by the largest exchanges in the world.

The fifth largest wallet is controlled by the U.S. government,seized from the Bitfinex hack incident. The sixth largest wallet is controlled by Tether, used to manage its Bitcoin reserves.

Top Holders in Various Categories

Below are the top bitcoin holders from various major entity categories (individuals, exchanges, ETF issuers, governments, organizations, publicly traded companies, and private companies).

The total holdings of Strategy are listed next to its confirmed holdings in parentheses.

Exchanges

Coinbase is the largest bitcoin holder among exchanges, with bitcoins held for itself and its customers. Coinbase also invests part of its net income in crypto assets and holds a certain amount of bitcoins for operations, such as to meet customer withdrawal demands at any time.

Binance, Robinhood, and Upbit are also major bitcoin holders among exchanges. Cold wallets controlled by exchanges hold customer deposits and generally do not represent ownership by the exchanges.

At the time of writing, Coinbaseholds5% of the total supply of bitcoins, while Binance holds3.3%.

ETF Issuers

Since the U.S. launched its Bitcoin spot ETF in January 2024, Arkham is the first to identify all ETF holding positions on-chain.

This includes the following companies:

• BlackRock

• Fidelity

• Grayscale

• Bitwise

• ARK Invest

Grayscale is an asset management company that offers a range of products to the public markets. It is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group. All digital assets of Grayscale financial products are also held on the Coinbase platform. While Grayscale publicly discloses its bitcoin balance, they refuse to disclose the on-chain addresses of the trust – we successfully found these addresses on-chain, distributed across more than 1,750 different addresses, with no address holding more than 1,000 bitcoins.

Governments

Many of the largest countries in the world have confirmed holdings of bitcoin or have previously held bitcoin.

According to our data, here are the five governments verified to hold the most bitcoin on-chain. There may be more governments holding bitcoin, but their holdings have not yet been verified.

Asset Seizures

The United States tops the list with 328,000 bitcoins in its wallets. These bitcoins were recovered by the FBI from the Bitfinex hack incident and seized from the Silk Road market and its hacker James Zhong. Recently, the U.S. government also obtained 127,000 bitcoins from the address of LuBian Hacker.

The United Kingdom holds 61,245 bitcoins. The London Police seized 61,000 bitcoins from Jian Wen and Zhimin Qian in 2018 and gained access to these seized bitcoins in July 2021.

In November 2020, Chinese authorities confiscated 194,775 bitcoins from the operators of the PlusToken Ponzi scheme. These tokens were confiscated for the local government, but it is currently unclear whether China still holds these bitcoins or if they have been sold.

Since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Ukraine has also received bitcoin donations worth $22.8 million. According to data released by the Ukrainian government in April 2021, over 700,000 Ukrainian public officials reported holding bitcoins, with some holding as much as 18,000 bitcoins. It is reported that Ukrainian public officials collectively hold 46,351 bitcoins. Although the bitcoins held by public officials are not technically government assets, the large-scale public holding of bitcoin by public officials is still significant and unusual.

In January 2024, the German government seized 50,000 bitcoins from a movie piracy site called Movie2k. However, these bitcoins were all sold by July 2024.

Sovereign Adoption

Unlike most countries that confiscate and hold bitcoin through criminal arrests, El Salvador boldly recognizes bitcoin as legal tender. El Salvador famously spent $108 million to purchase 2,546 bitcoins. In addition, in November 2022, President Nayib Bukele announced that the country would also buy 1 bitcoin daily.

Bhutan has been mining Bitcoin since 2019. In May 2023, Bhutan's sovereign wealth fund, Druk Holding and Investments, announced a $500 million agreement with Bitdeer to expand its bitcoin mining operations. Given Bhutan's geographical advantages, the country has built numerous hydropower plants along its glacial rivers. Today, Bhutan will utilize its cheap and abundant hydro resources for bitcoin mining and invest the proceeds in national development.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is actively positioning itself as a global cryptocurrency hub. Recently, we discovered large-scale mining activity in the UAE. The UAE holds 6,800 bitcoins. These bitcoins originate from Citadel's mining operations. Citadel is a publicly traded mining company, controlled by the UAE Royal Group through IHC (International Holding Company).

Public Companies

As the value of bitcoin as a digital asset becomes increasingly recognized and accepted, public companies are incorporating bitcoin into their investment strategies or diversifying their corporate reserves.

Led by Michael Saylor, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) holds more bitcoins than any other public company. The company has been accumulating bitcoin since August 2020, making purchases of various sizes every few weeks. Its total holdings are 739,000 bitcoins.

MARA is a bitcoin mining company listed in North America and is another company that holds a significant amount of bitcoin. The company operates 9 mines with an average production rate of 22.7 bitcoins per day as of September 2025. According to our data, MARA's on-chain wallet holds 13,000 bitcoins (valued at $864 million). However, it has been reported that the company also holds a treasury reserve of 53,200 bitcoins.

The Tokyo-listed company Metaplanet is referred to as "Japan's MicroStrategy". The company is acquiring bitcoins as its primary reserve asset, seeing it as a key hedge against the long-term depreciation of the yen and broader economic uncertainties. Metaplanet currently holds 35,100 bitcoins (approximately $2.4 billion).

Private Companies

Based on verified on-chain data, the two private companies holding the most bitcoins are Tether (96,300 bitcoins) and SpaceX (8,300 bitcoins).

SpaceX first purchase bitcoins in 2021, once holding 28,000 bitcoins. However, its holdings have significantly decreased since then. In August of this year, the bitcoins held by SpaceX were valued at $1 billion.

According to the Bitcoin Treasuries website, Block.one is currently the private company holding the most bitcoins, with 164,000 bitcoins. Block.one is a private tech and investment company known for developing the open-source blockchain software EOSIO. Its large holdings cannot be verified on-chain.

Unattributed Wallets

To further explore these unattributed wallets, you can copy the addresses and paste them into a data platform for search.

Conclusion

Bitcoin initially started as a niche project for cryptography enthusiasts but has now evolved into a financial asset of global significance, held by numerous companies, individuals, and government agencies. The tremendous appeal of bitcoin to users stems from its decentralized nature. This feature ensures that no one can fully control the Bitcoin network; even the most determined attackers could not control the entire network due to the extremely high costs involved.

The maximum supply of 21 million bitcoins is a fundamental element of the project's design, ensuring its scarcity and preventing value inflation through excess issuance. Considering that approximately 3.7 million bitcoins are permanently locked in inaccessible wallets, the actual total supply of bitcoins is even lower.

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