Article compiled by: Block unicorn
Foreword
If the different wallets were consolidated into a single entity, Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, would be the largest holder, holding 1.096 million bitcoins (approximately $77 billion). The tag "Arkham" originates from a known mining pattern known as the "Patosi pattern" and contains the unique (known) address where Nakamoto spent his bitcoins. Research suggests he received this amount as a reward for mining 22,000 blocks.
In terms of a single address, the wallet holding the most Bitcoin is a cold wallet on the Binance exchange, holding nearly 250,000 Bitcoins. You can also view the entity holding the most Bitcoin. An entity is a set of crypto addresses that are confirmed to be controlled by the same person or institution (such as an exchange, DeFi protocol, or company).
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that operates on a blockchain (a peer-to-peer network). Because of these characteristics, no one truly owns the entire Bitcoin network, but individuals can access and own Bitcoin through their own private keys.
Bitcoin's price surged, reaching approximately $126,000 in October 2025, with a peak market capitalization of $2.48 trillion, creating numerous Bitcoin billionaires and other wealthy holders. In this article, we will examine some individuals, companies, and wallets that have become crypto whale, based on on-chain data and their own public statements, and investigate the amount of Bitcoin they hold.
summary
Satoshi Nakamoto is the largest holder of Bitcoin, owning approximately 1.1 million Bitcoins, which are worth about $77 billion 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, some of which are held in Fidelity Custody on-chain due to its comprehensive custody approach ).
The U.S. government holds 328,000 bitcoins. These bitcoins came from the seizure of assets belonging to criminal organizations.
There are also several unidentified Bitcoin billionaires. Numerous wallets exist, most of which became inactive after the initial influx of Bitcoin.
Largest Bitcoin wallet
We group wallets associated with individuals or organizations into “entities.” Entities are useful because, for security and operational reasons, large holders rarely keep all their assets in a single wallet. By grouping all associated wallets into one entity, we can more accurately and comprehensively represent that entity’s total holdings and influence in the cryptocurrency market.
However, it is also possible to view individual wallets without categorizing them into specific entities. The table below lists the largest single wallets. The top four are all cold wallets controlled by the world's largest exchanges.
The fifth largest wallet is controlled by the US government and was seized during the Bitfinex hack . The sixth largest wallet is controlled by Tether and is used to manage its Bitcoin reserves.
Top holders in each category
The following are the top Bitcoin holders from various major entity categories (individuals, exchanges, ETF issuers , government agencies , publicly traded companies, and private companies) .
Strategy’s total holdings are listed in parentheses next to its confirmed on-chain holdings.
Exchange
Coinbase is the largest Bitcoin exchange in terms of holdings, with both its own and its customers' Bitcoin held in custody. Coinbase also invests a portion of its net income in crypto assets and holds a certain amount of Bitcoin for operational purposes, such as to facilitate customer withdrawals.
Binance, Robinhood, and Upbit are also major Bitcoin exchange holders. Cold wallets controlled by exchanges hold customer deposits and typically do not represent ownership of the exchange.
At the time of writing, Coinbase holds 5% of the total Bitcoin supply, while Binance holds 3.3%.
ETF issuers
Since the launch of the Bitcoin spot ETF in the United States in January 2024 , Arkham is the first institution to identify all ETF holdings 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 the Digital Currency Group. All digital assets of Grayscale's financial products are also custodied on the Coinbase platform. While Grayscale publicly discloses its Bitcoin balance, it refuses to reveal the on-chain addresses of its trusts—we were able to locate these addresses on-chain, distributed across more than 1,750 different addresses, each holding no more than 1,000 Bitcoins.
Governments of various countries
Many of the world’s largest countries have confirmed holdings of Bitcoin, or have held Bitcoin in the past.
Our data shows that the following are the five governments with the largest verified on-chain holdings of Bitcoin. There may be more governments holding Bitcoin, but their holdings have not yet been verified.
Asset seizure
The United States tops the list with a wallet holding 328,000 bitcoins. These bitcoins were recovered by the FBI from the Bitfinex hack and seized from the Silk Road marketplace and its hacker, James Zhong. Recently, the US government also obtained 127,000 bitcoins from LuBian Hacker's address.
The UK holds 61,245 bitcoins. The Metropolitan 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 seized 194,775 bitcoins from the operators of the PlusToken Ponzi scheme. These tokens were confiscated and placed under the jurisdiction of local governments, but it remains unclear whether China still holds these bitcoins or has sold them.
Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Ukraine has received Bitcoin donations worth $22.8 million. According to data released by the Ukrainian government in April 2021, over 700,000 Ukrainian public officials declared holdings of Bitcoin, with some holding as many as 18,000 coins. It is claimed that Ukrainian public officials collectively hold 46,351 Bitcoins. While the Bitcoin held by public officials is not strictly speaking government assets, the large-scale public holding of Bitcoin by civil servants is still significant and unusual.
In January 2024, the German government seized 50,000 bitcoins from a movie piracy website called Movie2k. However, all of these bitcoins had already been sold in July 2024.
Sovereign states adopt
Unlike most countries that confiscate and seize Bitcoin through criminal arrests, El Salvador has boldly recognized it as legal tender. El Salvador is widely known for its purchase of 2,546 Bitcoins for $108 million. Furthermore, in November 2022, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced that the country would also purchase one Bitcoin daily.
Bhutan has been mining Bitcoin since 2019. In May 2023, Bhutan's sovereign wealth fund, Drucker Holdings, announced a $500 million cooperation agreement with Bitdeer to expand its Bitcoin mining operations. Given Bhutan's advantageous geographical location, the country has built numerous hydroelectric power stations along its glacial rivers. Now, Bhutan will utilize its inexpensive and abundant water resources for Bitcoin mining and invest the profits 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 listed mining company controlled by the Royal Group of the UAE through IHC (International Holdings).
Listed companies
As Bitcoin's value as a digital asset gains increasing recognition and acceptance, listed companies are increasingly incorporating it into their investment strategies or diversifying their reserves.
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), led by Michael Saylor, holds more Bitcoin than any other publicly traded company. The company has been accumulating Bitcoin since August 2020, making purchases of varying sizes every few weeks. Its total holdings amount to 739,000 Bitcoins.
MARA is a publicly listed Bitcoin mining company in North America and another company holding a significant amount of Bitcoin. The company operates nine mining farms, with an average daily output of 22.7 Bitcoins in September 2025. According to our data, MARA's on-chain wallets hold 13,000 Bitcoins (worth $864 million). However, the company reportedly also holds a vault reserve of 53,200 Bitcoins.
Metaplanet, a Tokyo-listed company hailed as "Japan's MicroStrategy," is acquiring Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset, calling it a key hedge against a prolonged depreciation of the yen and broader economic uncertainty. Metaplanet currently holds 35,100 bitcoins (worth approximately $2.4 billion).
private companies
According to verified on-chain data, the two private companies holding the most Bitcoin are Tether (96,300 Bitcoins) and SpaceX (8,300 Bitcoins).
SpaceX first purchased Bitcoin in 2021, at one point holding 28,000 coins. However, its holdings have since decreased significantly. In August of this year, SpaceX's Bitcoin holdings were worth $1 billion.
According to the Bitcoin Treasuries website, Block.one is currently the private company holding the most Bitcoin, with 164,000 coins. Block.one is a private technology and investment company, best known for developing the open-source blockchain software EOSIO. Its massive holdings cannot be verified on-chain.
Unclaimed wallets
To further explore these unclaimed wallets, you can copy the address and paste it into a data platform for searching.
in conclusion
What began as a niche project among cryptography enthusiasts has evolved into a globally significant financial asset, held by numerous companies, individuals, and government agencies. Bitcoin's immense appeal stems from its decentralized nature. This ensures that the Bitcoin network is not completely controlled by any single individual; even for the most determined attacker, seizing control of the entire network would be virtually impossible due to the extremely high cost.
The maximum supply of 21 million Bitcoins is a fundamental element of the project's design, ensuring its scarcity and preventing its value from being inflated through increased issuance. Considering that approximately 3.7 million Bitcoins are permanently tied up in inaccessible wallets, the actual total supply of Bitcoin is even lower.
