Who owns the most Bitcoins in 2025?

# Introduction  

Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous founder of Bitcoin, is the largest Bitcoin holder, owning 1.096 million Bitcoins (approximately $128 billion). Arkham’s labeling is derived from a known mining pattern called the "Patoshi Pattern," which includes the only (known) address used by Satoshi for Bitcoin transactions. Arkham’s research indicates that he accumulated this wealth by mining 22,000 blocks. The individual wallet holding the most Bitcoins is that of Binance Exchange, with nearly 250,000 Bitcoins.  

Through Arkham, we can identify which specific wallets hold the largest amounts of Bitcoin:  

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency operating on a blockchain (a peer-to-peer network). Due to these characteristics, no single entity truly owns the entire Bitcoin network, but individuals can access and own Bitcoins via their private keys.  

The price of Bitcoin has surged significantly, reaching approximately $124,000 in August 2025, with a peak market capitalization of $2.47 trillion. This has given rise to several Bitcoin billionaires and other wealthy holders. In this article, we will explore individuals, companies, and wallets that have become major cryptocurrency holders, as well as the amount of Bitcoin they own, based on on-chain data and public statements.  

Note: The price of Bitcoin is highly volatile, and the amount of Bitcoin held in specific wallets may change over time.  

# Summary  

- Satoshi Nakamoto is the largest Bitcoin holder, owning approximately 1.1 million Bitcoins, worth around $128 billion at current prices.  

- Coinbase holds a total of nearly 1 million Bitcoins. BlackRock, Binance, and Strategy hold over 600,000, 450,000, and 200,000 Bitcoins respectively.  

- The U.S. government holds 198,000 Bitcoins, seized from the Silk Road marketplace, James Zhong, and the Bitfinex hack.  

- There are multiple unknown Bitcoin billionaire wallets, most of which have been inactive since Bitcoins were initially deposited into them.  

# Largest Known Individual Holders  

While the identities of many large Bitcoin holders remain unknown, the identities of numerous holders have been revealed through public disclosures or research.  

Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous founder of Bitcoin, is the largest Bitcoin holder, with 1.1 million Bitcoins distributed across 22,000 addresses. As the network’s first miner, he mined over 22,000 blocks between 2009 and 2010, receiving 1.1 million Bitcoins as block rewards. However, despite speculation that these rewards were collected by a single entity, we cannot fully confirm Satoshi’s true identity.  

Below is a known Satoshi address, which you can view on Arkham: 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa.  

The second-largest known individual Bitcoin holder is the LuBian hacker, who stole 127,426 Bitcoins from LuBian in December 2020. At the time, this batch of Bitcoins was worth $3.5 billion, but its value now exceeds $14.8 billion.  

The Winklevoss twins (Tyler and Cameron), founders of Gemini, revealed in 2013 that they had purchased 1% of the total Bitcoin supply at the time. This is estimated to be approximately 70,000 Bitcoins (BTC). Currently, the Winklevoss twins hold 17,688 Bitcoins, worth just over $2 billion.  

Famous venture capitalist Tim Draper purchased 29,656 Bitcoins from the U.S. Marshals Service for $18.7 million in 2014. He later bought an additional 2,000 Bitcoins in a second Bitcoin auction in December 2014. Arkham currently estimates that Draper holds 33,806 Bitcoins, valued at $3.95 billion. Some of the largest addresses predicted to belong to Draper include:  

- bc1qul68d3qeqhxa2kq8yrs0l85awu8v7hp2l3pdag  

- bc1qzmx9spvnkx3s78v03kswv4xtzp88tem5e5m08j  

- bc1q80h3q90uq0297wxv4rnx67mzcwanwp9pd489uf  

(Full disclosure: Draper is one of Arkham’s investors, through his firm Draper Associates.)  

Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy, revealed in November 2021 that he personally holds 17,732 Bitcoins. Known for his extremely bullish stance, Saylor has become a prominent figure in cryptocurrency culture. He maintains an active media presence on Twitter and other platforms, publicly advocating for Bitcoin’s ideology.  

# Publicly Traded Companies Holding Bitcoin  

As Bitcoin’s value as a digital asset is gradually recognized, publicly traded companies have begun to include Bitcoin in their investment strategies or as part of diversifying corporate reserves.  

MicroStrategy, led by Michael Saylor, is the publicly traded company holding the most Bitcoins. The company has been accumulating Bitcoin since August 2020, with its latest purchase in August 2025: 430 Bitcoins for $51.4 million. This brings its total holdings to 629,376 Bitcoins (valued at $72.4 billion).  

Galaxy Digital offers asset management, trading, and other institutional services. Founded by Mike Novogratz, Galaxy Digital reported holding Bitcoin worth $1.58 billion in its 2023-24 public filings. However, this figure does not account for any digital asset loan payables or collateral payables.  

## Galaxy Digital’s Transactions in Arkham Visualizer  

MARA is a publicly traded Bitcoin mining company in North America and another major Bitcoin holder. It operates 9 mining facilities, mining an average of 24.4 Bitcoins per day. According to Arkham data, MARA’s on-chain wallets hold 16,975 Bitcoins (valued at $1.98 billion).  

Tesla reportedly holds 10,700 Bitcoins. This was first disclosed in Tesla’s February 2021 10-K filing, stating that the company had used 7.5% of its cash to purchase $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. The company initially announced that it would start accepting Bitcoin as payment for its products but later canceled the plan citing climate change concerns. Following the 2022 cryptocurrency market crash, Tesla sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings in the second quarter of 2022, incurring a $140 million loss. Since then, Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings have remained unchanged. Currently, Tesla holds 11,509 Bitcoins, valued at $1.34 billion.  

Finally, BlackRock and other ETF providers hold large amounts of Bitcoin in their spot Bitcoin ETFs. BlackRock is the largest institutional asset manager holding Bitcoin, with 735,840 Bitcoins valued at $85.59 billion.  

# Private Companies Holding Bitcoin  

Mt. Gox, a Japan-based Bitcoin exchange, shut down and filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after a massive Bitcoin hack. Over the years, the appointed trustee has recovered some of the lost Bitcoins, most of which were returned to creditors in 2024. Mt. Gox’s wallets currently hold 34,689 Bitcoins, valued at $4.04 billion.  

Tether is the issuer of the stablecoin USDT, with a circulating supply of $83.4 billion. It reported a net profit of $1.48 billion in the first quarter of 2021 and stated that starting from May, it would regularly use 15% of its net realized operating profits to purchase Bitcoin. Tether currently holds 78,601 Bitcoins, valued at $9.14 billion.  

# Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and Trusts  

Since the launch of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, Arkham has taken the lead in identifying the on-chain holding positions of all ETFs. These include: BlackRock (735,840 Bitcoins), Fidelity (14,000 Bitcoins), Bitwise (40,780 Bitcoins), Franklin Templeton (5,360 Bitcoins), ARK Invest (43,990 Bitcoins), Invesco (5,490 Bitcoins), VanEck (17,090 Bitcoins), Valkyrie (5,730 Bitcoins), and WisdomTree (13,420 Bitcoins).  

Grayscale is an asset management company offering a variety of products for public markets and a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group. The digital assets of all Grayscale’s financial products are also custodied by Coinbase. While Grayscale publicly reports its Bitcoin balance, it refuses to disclose the on-chain addresses of its trusts—Arkham has been able to locate these addresses, totaling 627,000 Bitcoins distributed across over 1,750 different addresses, with no single address holding more than 1,000 Bitcoins. Grayscale currently holds 232,178 Bitcoins, valued at $27.01 billion.  

# Which Government Owns the Most Bitcoins?  

Unlike most countries that seize and hold Bitcoins through criminal arrests, El Salvador and the Central African Republic have boldly adopted Bitcoin as legal tender. El Salvador purchased 2,546 Bitcoins for $108 million. Additionally, in November 2022, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced that the country would buy 1 Bitcoin every day. El Salvador currently holds 6,272 Bitcoins, valued at $729.62 million.  

Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Ukraine has also received $22.8 million in Bitcoin donations. According to data reported by the Ukrainian government in April 2021, over 700,000 public officials declared owning Bitcoins, with some individuals holding up to 18,000 Bitcoins. It is claimed that Ukrainian public officials collectively hold 46,351 Bitcoins. While the holdings of public officials are not strictly considered government-owned, the widespread and public declaration of Bitcoin ownership by civil servants remains significant and unusual.  

Bhutan has been mining Bitcoin since 2019. In May 2023, Bhutan’s sovereign wealth fund, Druk Holding and Investments, announced a $500 million partnership with Bitdeer to expand its Bitcoin mining operations. Leveraging Bhutan’s geographical advantages, the country has built multiple hydropower stations along its glacial rivers. Now, Bhutan will use its cheap and abundant hydropower resources to mine Bitcoin and invest the profits in national development. Bhutan currently holds 9,969 Bitcoins, valued at $1.16 billion.  

# Seizures  

However, in terms of the amount of Bitcoins seized by governments, the United States ranks first, with its Bitcoin wallets holding 198,022 Bitcoins valued at $23.04 billion. These Bitcoins were recovered by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from the Bitfinex hack, as well as seized from the Silk Road marketplace and Silk Road hacker James Zhong. Between 2014 and 2015, the U.S. government liquidated 173,998 Bitcoins seized from the Silk Road at U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) auctions for $65.84 million, and liquidated 41,706 Bitcoins seized from Silk Road hacker James Zhong, valued at approximately $2.21 billion.  

The United Kingdom holds 61,245 Bitcoins, valued at $7.13 billion. London’s Metropolitan Police seized 61,000 Bitcoins from Jian Wen and Zhimin Qian in 2018 and gained access to these Bitcoins in July 2021.  

In 2017, the Bulgarian government seized 213,519 Bitcoins following a anti-crime operation. At the time, this accounted for 1% of the circulating supply, worth $3.3 billion. After the operation, there were rumors that the government auctioned off all Bitcoin proceeds in the following months. However, it remains unclear whether this was actually the case.  

In November 2020, Chinese authorities seized 194,775 Bitcoins from the operators of the PlusToken Ponzi scheme. These tokens were confiscated and owned by local governments, but it is currently unclear whether China still holds these Bitcoins or has sold them.  

In July 2022, Finland liquidated 1,889 Bitcoins seized from criminal activities prior to 2018. Finnish Customs still holds 90 Bitcoins and an undisclosed number of other tokens, which are currently awaiting a court ruling.  

Additionally, in January 2024, the German government seized 50,000 Bitcoins from the pirated movie website Movie2k. However, all these Bitcoins were sold in July 2024.  

# Cryptocurrency Exchanges  

Coinbase ranks first among exchanges in terms of Bitcoin holdings, with 974,400 on-chain identified Bitcoins valued at $113.4 billion (representing funds custodied by Coinbase for itself and its clients). Coinbase also invests a portion of its net income in crypto assets and holds a certain amount of Bitcoins to meet operational needs for clients’ immediate withdrawals.  

Binance and Upbit are also major exchange holders of Bitcoin, with 622,280 and 170,800 Bitcoins respectively. Exchanges use cold wallets to custody client deposits, which typically do not represent the exchanges’ own ownership. Together, Binance and Upbit hold over 4% of the total circulating supply of Bitcoin.  

# Largest Unattributed Major Bitcoin Wallets  

In addition to cryptocurrency exchanges, there are many anonymous Bitcoin billionaire wallets holding large amounts of Bitcoin. These wallets vary in activity: some actively conduct transactions, while others have been dormant for a long time, leading to speculation about whether their owners can still access them.  

Among the top 10 wallets analyzed, 6 are inactive, and the remaining 4 have had outflows since their creation. Interestingly, 7 of the top 10 Bitcoin billionaire wallets were created after January 2018.  

Below is a table of the largest unattributed Bitcoin holders, showing the number of Bitcoins they hold, the percentage of the circulating supply, wallet status, and observations about the wallets.  

## Top Unattributed Major Wallets Holding Over $1 Billion Worth of Bitcoin  

# Conclusion  

Bitcoin has evolved from a niche project for cryptography enthusiasts to a globally important financial asset, with numerous companies, individuals, and governments as holders. Bitcoin’s strong appeal to users stems from its decentralized nature, which ensures that no one fully owns the Bitcoin network and that even the most determined attackers can barely control it.  

Bitcoin has a maximum supply of 21 million coins—a fundamental principle of the project designed to ensure it remains a scarce asset and will not be further issued to inflate its value. Considering that an estimated 3.7 million Bitcoins are permanently lost in inaccessible wallets, the actual total supply of Bitcoin is even lower.  

Through Arkham’s Token Page, users can easily monitor Bitcoin’s top holders, track the largest inflows and outflows, and filter specific Bitcoin transactions.  

# Disclaimer  

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute investment advice for this platform. This platform makes no guarantee regarding the accuracy, completeness, originality, or timeliness of the information in the article, nor does it assume any liability for any losses arising from the use of or reliance on the information in the article.