# Who Owns the Most Bitcoin: Holder League Table

> Who owns the most bitcoin, by holder group: spot ETFs, public companies, governments, exchanges and early miners, with each group's share of supply and source.

Markdown copy of https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/who-owns-the-most-bitcoin

**Question:** Who holds the most bitcoin today: ETFs, companies, governments or exchanges?

- Kind: Report in Voltfin Folio
- Topic: [Bitcoin](https://voltfincrypto.com/topics/bitcoin)
- Chains: Bitcoin
- Status: Planned. The data is not published yet, so this page states no figure; each figure will open its receipt when it is.

The largest known holders of bitcoin are spot ETFs, public companies, governments and exchanges, alongside a large body of coins mined in 2009 and 2010 that has never moved, and this report ranks those groups by the bitcoin each is shown to hold. Every figure is dated and sourced, because the chain shows balances, not owners.

Two kinds of evidence sit side by side. Some holdings are read from the chain: unmoved early coinbase outputs, and the balances of addresses that a holder has published or that a court record names. Others are published off-chain, such as fund holdings files and company filings, and are recorded with the document and its date. The report says which is which for every group.

Use it to put a share-of-supply claim in context or to see which groups grew over the month. The groups do not add up to the whole supply: much of it sits with individuals and custodians that publish nothing, and the report shows that unattributed remainder as its own line.

## Blueprint

### The ranking in one paragraph

Which holder groups hold the most bitcoin at the edition date, how their shares changed over the month and how much of the supply stays unattributed.

Cites: Holdings by group; Share of circulating supply by group; Unattributed supply.

### Spot ETFs and funds

Each spot ETF and exchange-traded product with its published holdings, the month's change and its custody addresses where they are disclosed.

Cites: Holdings per fund; Net change over the month per fund.

### Companies and governments

Public and private companies from their filings, and governments from official statements and court records, with any on-chain movement of the addresses they name.

Cites: Company holdings; Government holdings; Coins moved from named addresses.

### Exchanges and custodians

Balances of labelled exchange wallets and proof-of-reserves addresses, and the bitcoin custodians hold to back wrapped tokens on other chains.

Cites: Exchange wallet balances; Bitcoin backing wrapped tokens.

### Early miners and unmoved coins

Unspent coinbase outputs from 2009 and 2010 and other long-unmoved supply, shown as groups and never assigned to a person.

Cites: Unspent 2009 and 2010 coinbase supply; Supply unmoved for ten years or more.

### What the chain can and cannot show

Why addresses are not owners, how overlaps between groups are removed and how on-chain reads differ from figures taken from published documents.

## How it will be measured

- Spot ETF and ETP holdings come from each issuer's published holdings file on the edition date, recorded with its source and matched to custody addresses where the issuer discloses them.
- Company and government holdings come from filings, official statements and court records, each dated; a balance is read on-chain only where the addresses are disclosed or named in a court record.
- Exchange holdings are balances of labelled exchange wallets at the edition's last block, using the exchange's published proof-of-reserves addresses where they exist.
- Early-miner coins are unspent coinbase outputs of blocks mined in 2009 and 2010, read from the UTXO set; they are reported as a group and never assigned to a person.
- Shares of supply divide each group's holdings by circulating supply at the same block, and every on-chain figure is pinned to that block with its hash.

## Data it needs

- `etf_holdings_daily` (to build): Holdings and daily flows of spot crypto ETFs per fund, from issuer-published holdings, matched to custody addresses where they are disclosed.
- `treasury_holdings` (to build): Crypto held by public companies, treasury companies and governments, from filings, with on-chain addresses where disclosed.
- `exchange_balances_daily` (to build): Balances held in labelled exchange wallets per asset, chain and exchange at day end, and net flows in and out.
- `address_labels` (to build): Labels for known addresses: exchanges, bridges, protocols, funds, treasuries, sanctioned addresses and known attackers.
- `bitcoin_supply_daily` (to build): Bitcoin issued, supply by coin age band and by output script type (including coins whose public keys are already exposed), supply last moved long ago, and cost-basis measures.
- `token_supply_daily` (to build): Total supply of each registry token on each chain at day end: wrapped BTC, liquid staking tokens, tokenized assets and other tracked tokens.
- Source: Spot ETF and ETP issuer holdings files on the edition date, recorded with their source
- Source: Company filings and press releases, and government statements and court records, each recorded with its date
- Source: Balances of disclosed custody, proof-of-reserves and court-named addresses at the edition's last block
- Source: Unspent coinbase outputs of blocks mined in 2009 and 2010, from the UTXO set
- Source: gettxoutsetinfo total_amount at the same block, for each group's share of supply

## Questions

### Who owns the most bitcoin?

No single answer is on the chain, because addresses are not identities. The largest known holders are funds, companies, governments and exchanges that disclose their holdings or addresses, along with coins mined in 2009 and 2010 that have never moved. This report ranks those groups with the source for each.

### How much bitcoin do spot ETFs hold?

Each spot ETF publishes its holdings, usually every trading day. The report adds them up fund by fund on the edition date. Where an issuer discloses its custody addresses, the report also reads their balances on-chain and shows any gap with the published figure.

### How much bitcoin do governments hold?

Governments hold bitcoin mostly from seizures and forfeitures, and a few from purchases or mining. Their holdings come from official statements and court records, and the addresses named in those records are read on-chain, so a reader can see whether coins have moved since a filing.

### Does Satoshi Nakamoto own the most bitcoin?

Coins mined in 2009 and 2010 that have never moved form one of the largest unmoved holdings on the chain, and part of them is often attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. Coin age is not proof of ownership, so the report shows these coins as early-miner supply and assigns them to no one.

### Why don't the groups add up to the total supply?

Most bitcoin sits with individuals, private firms and custodians that publish nothing, and some is lost. The report counts only holdings it can source and shows the unattributed remainder as its own line, rather than spreading it across the groups.

## Glossary

- **Spot ETF**: An exchange-traded fund that holds bitcoin itself through a custodian instead of futures. It creates and redeems shares against the coins it holds.
- **Proof of reserves**: A published set of addresses, or a cryptographic attestation, that lets anyone check the coins an exchange or custodian holds.
- **Coinbase output**: An output of a block's first transaction, through which the miner receives the subsidy and the block's fees.

## Related apps

- [Public Companies That Own Bitcoin, Ranked by Holdings](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/public-companies-holding-bitcoin)
- [Government Bitcoin Holdings and the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/government-bitcoin-holdings)
- [Bitcoin ETF Holdings by Issuer and Fund](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-etf-holdings-by-issuer)
- [Bitcoin Exchange Reserves and Netflows](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-exchange-reserves)
- [How Much Bitcoin Does Satoshi Have? Satoshi-Era Coins Unspent](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/satoshi-era-bitcoin-unspent)
- [Bitcoin Halving Countdown and Block Reward](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-halving-countdown)

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