Author: Arkham
Translation: Block unicorn
Introduction
Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous founder of Bitcoin, is the largest holder of Bitcoin, owning 1.096 million Bitcoins (approximately $128 billion). Arkham's label comes from a known mining pattern called the "Patoshi pattern," which includes the only (known) address used by Satoshi to access Bitcoin. Arkham's research indicates that he acquired this wealth by mining 22,000 blocks. The individual wallet with the most Bitcoin is that of Binance, holding nearly 250,000 Bitcoins.
Through Arkham, we can see which specific wallets hold the most Bitcoin:
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that operates on a blockchain (a peer-to-peer network). Due to these characteristics, no one is the true owner of the entire Bitcoin network, but individuals can access and own Bitcoin through their private keys.
The price of Bitcoin surged significantly, reaching approximately $124,000 in August 2025, with a market cap peak of $2.47 trillion, leading to the emergence of several Bitcoin billionaires and other wealthy holders. In this article, we will explore some individuals, companies, and wallets that have become major players in cryptocurrency, based on on-chain data and public statements, as well as the amount of Bitcoin they hold.
Note: The price of Bitcoin is highly volatile, and the amount of Bitcoin held by specific wallets may change over time.
Summary
Satoshi Nakamoto is the largest Bitcoin holder, owning approximately 1.1 million Bitcoins, valued at about $128 billion at today's prices.
Coinbase holds nearly 1 million Bitcoins in total. BlackRock, Binance, and Strategy hold over 600,000, 450,000, and 200,000 Bitcoins, respectively.
The U.S. government holds 198,000 Bitcoins, which were seized from the Silk Road market, James Zhong, and the Bitfinex hack incident.
There are multiple unknown Bitcoin billionaire wallets, most of which have been inactive since the initial inflow of Bitcoin.
Largest Known Individual Holders
While many individuals holding large amounts of Bitcoin remain unidentified, many holders' identities have been revealed through public disclosures or research.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous founder of Bitcoin, is the largest Bitcoin holder, owning 1.1 million Bitcoins distributed across 22,000 addresses. As the first miner on the network, he mined over 22,000 blocks between 2009 and 2010, earning 1.1 million Bitcoins as block rewards. However, despite speculation that these rewards were collected by a single entity, we cannot definitively determine Satoshi's true identity.
Here is a known Satoshi address that 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 that time, this batch of Bitcoins was worth $3.5 billion, but is now valued at over $14.8 billion.
The founders of Gemini, the Winklevoss twins (Tyler and Cameron), revealed in 2013 that they purchased 1% of the total Bitcoin supply at that time. It is estimated that this was approximately 70,000 Bitcoins (BTC). Currently, the Winklevoss twins hold 17,688 Bitcoins, valued at just over $2 billion.
Famous venture capitalist Tim Draper purchased 29,656 Bitcoins from the U.S. Marshals Service in 2014 for $18.7 million. Draper subsequently bought another 2,000 Bitcoins in a second Bitcoin auction in December 2014. Arkham currently predicts that Draper holds 33,806 Bitcoins, valued at $3.95 billion. Some of the largest addresses predicted for Draper include:
bc1qul68d3qeqhxa2kq8yrs0l85awu8v7hp2l3pdag
bc1qzmx9spvnkx3s78v03kswv4xtzp88tem5e5m08j
bc1q80h3q90uq0297wxv4rnx67mzcwanwp9pd489uf
(Full disclosure: Draper is one of Arkham's investors through his company 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 supporting the ideals of Bitcoin.
Publicly Traded Companies Holding Bitcoin
As the value of Bitcoin as a digital asset has gradually been recognized, publicly traded companies have begun to incorporate Bitcoin as part of their investment strategies or corporate reserve diversification.
MicroStrategy, led by Michael Saylor, is the publicly traded company with the most Bitcoin. The company has been accumulating Bitcoin since August 2020, with its most recent purchase in August 2025 of 430 Bitcoins for $51.4 million. This brings its total holdings to 629,376 Bitcoins (valued at $72.4 billion).
Galaxy Digital provides asset management, trading, and other institutional services. Founded by Mike Novogratz, Galaxy Digital reported holding $1.58 billion worth of Bitcoin according to 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 holder of Bitcoin. They operate 9 mining facilities, averaging 24.4 Bitcoins mined per day. According to Arkham data, MARA's on-chain wallet holds 16,975 Bitcoins (valued at $1.98 billion).
Tesla reportedly holds 10,700 Bitcoins. This was initially disclosed in Tesla's 10-K filing in February 2021, stating that the company purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin with 7.5% of its cash. The company initially indicated it would begin accepting Bitcoin as payment for its products but soon canceled the plan citing climate change. Following the cryptocurrency market crash in 2022, Tesla sold 75% of its Bitcoin in the second quarter of 2022, incurring a loss of $140 million. Since then, Tesla's Bitcoin holdings have remained unchanged. Tesla currently holds 11,509 Bitcoins, valued at $1.34 billion.
Finally, BlackRock and other ETF providers hold significant amounts of Bitcoin in their spot Bitcoin ETFs. BlackRock is the largest institutional asset management company holding Bitcoin, with 735,840 Bitcoins, valued at $85.59 billion.
Private Companies Holding Bitcoin
Mt. Gox is a Bitcoin exchange based in Japan that closed and filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after suffering a massive Bitcoin hack. Over the years, the designated trustee has recovered some of the lost Bitcoins, most of which were returned to creditors in 2024. The Mt. Gox wallet currently holds 34,689 Bitcoins, valued at $4.04 billion.
Tether is the issuer of the stablecoin USDT, with a circulating supply of 83.4 billion. In the first quarter of 2021, it reported a net profit of $1.48 billion and stated that starting in May, it would regularly use 15% of its net realized operating profit to purchase Bitcoin. Tether currently holds 78,601 Bitcoins, valued at $9.14 billion.
Exchange-Traded Funds and Trusts
Since the U.S. launched its Bitcoin spot ETF in January 2024, Arkham has been the first to identify all ETF's on-chain holdings. 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), WisdomTree (13,420 Bitcoins).
Grayscale is an asset management company that provides various products to the public market and is a subsidiary of the Digital Currency Group. The digital assets of all Grayscale 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 find these addresses, totaling 627,000 Bitcoins, distributed across more than 1,750 different addresses, with each address holding no more than 1,000 Bitcoins. Grayscale currently holds 232,178 Bitcoins, valued at $27.01 billion.
Which Government Holds the Most Bitcoin?
Unlike most countries that hold Bitcoin through criminal seizure, El Salvador and the Central African Republic boldly adopted Bitcoin as legal tender. El Salvador purchased 2,546 Bitcoins for $108 million. Additionally, in November 2022, President Nayib Bukele announced that the country would purchase 1 Bitcoin daily. El Salvador currently holds 6,272 Bitcoins, valued at $729.62 million.
Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Ukraine has received $22.8 million in Bitcoin donations. According to data from a report by the Ukrainian government in April 2021, over 700,000 public officials have declared ownership of Bitcoin, with some individuals holding as many as 18,000 Bitcoins. It is claimed that Ukrainian public officials collectively hold 46,351 Bitcoins. Although the holdings of public officials do not strictly belong to the government, the widespread and public declaration of Bitcoin ownership by civil servants is still significant and unusual.
Bhutan began mining Bitcoin in 2019, and 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. With Bhutan's geographical advantages, the country has built several hydropower stations along its glacial rivers. Now, the country will utilize 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 Bitcoin seized by governments, the United States ranks first, with a Bitcoin wallet holding 198,022 Bitcoins, valued at $23.04 billion. These Bitcoins were recovered by the FBI from the Bitfinex hack and were also seized from the Silk Road market and Silk Road hacker James Zhong. During U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) auctions from 2014 to 2015, the U.S. government liquidated 173,998 Bitcoins seized from the Silk Road for $65.84 million and liquidated 41,706 Bitcoins seized from hacker James Zhong, valued at approximately $2.21 billion.
The United Kingdom holds 61,245 Bitcoins, valued at $7.13 billion. The Metropolitan Police of the UK 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 crackdown on criminal activity. At that time, this accounted for 1% of the circulating supply, valued at $3.3 billion. After the operation, there were rumors that the government auctioned off all the Bitcoin proceeds in the following months. However, it remains unclear whether this actually occurred.
In November 2020, Chinese authorities seized 194,775 Bitcoins from the operators of the PlusToken Ponzi scheme. These tokens were confiscated for local government ownership, 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 before 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, these Bitcoins were entirely sold by July 2024.
Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Coinbase ranks first in exchange Bitcoin holdings, with 974,400 Bitcoins identified on-chain, valued at $113.4 billion (representing its own and clients' funds held in custody by Coinbase). Coinbase also invests a portion of its net income in crypto assets and holds a certain amount of Bitcoin to meet operational needs for client withdrawals at any time.
Binance and Upbit are also major holders of Bitcoin, holding 622,280 and 170,800 Bitcoins, respectively. The exchange's cold wallets hold customer deposits and typically do not represent ownership by the exchanges. Together, Binance and Upbit hold over 4% of the circulating supply of Bitcoin.
Largest Unattributed Bitcoin Billionaire Wallets
In addition to cryptocurrency exchanges, there are many anonymous Bitcoin billionaire wallets holding large amounts of Bitcoin. The activity levels of these wallets vary, with some actively trading while others have remained dormant for long periods, leading to speculation about whether their owners can still access them.
Among the top 10 wallets analyzed, 6 are inactive, while the remaining 4 wallets have seen outflows since their creation. Interestingly, 7 of the top 10 Bitcoin billionaire wallets were created after January 2018.
Here is a table of the largest unattributed Bitcoin holders, showing the amount of Bitcoin held, the percentage of circulating supply, wallet status, and observations on the wallets.
Top unattributed wallets holding over $1 billion in Bitcoin
Conclusion
Bitcoin has evolved from a niche project for cryptography enthusiasts into a globally significant financial asset, with numerous corporate, individual, and government holders. The strong appeal of Bitcoin to users stems from its decentralized nature, which ensures that no one entity fully owns the Bitcoin network, and even the most determined attackers find it nearly impossible to control the network.
The maximum supply of Bitcoin is capped at 21 million, which is a fundamental principle of the project's design aimed at ensuring it remains a scarce asset and that no further issuance will 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 the top holders of Bitcoin, track the largest inflows and outflows, and filter specific Bitcoin transactions.
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