Bitcoin Hodlers: Has Satoshi Nakamoto Been Dethroned?

So far, the wallet of Bitcoin’s father is the richest of all. Celebrities, governments, companies, or cryptocurrency exchanges of all kinds have not been able to dethrone him in the ranking of wealthy Bitcoin holders. Details!

Difficult to End the Superiority of Bitcoin’s Father?

While the identity and current whereabouts of Satoshi Nakamoto remain unknown, his Bitcoin wealth is estimated at around 1 million coins.

World's TOP 10 #Bitcoin Holders – Wonder if any Anon Whale Wallet's are missing?? pic.twitter.com/KUxfzGl91a

— Jason A. Williams (@GoingParabolic) December 10, 2023

Apparently, Satoshi Nakamoto, the man some would like to award the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, is the world’s largest Bitcoin holder. CNN confirmed in a June 2023 publication that the first BTC miner wanted a major upheaval in the finance sector by launching a “peer-to-peer version of electronic money“. This asset “would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution or any middleman“.

Techopedia, author of a recent article on the top 10 Bitcoin hodlers, specified that Satoshi Nakamoto is estimated to own about 1.1 million BTC tokens spread across 22,000 different addresses. Note that these digital assets have not been transferred since 2010.

To give you an idea of his wealth, multiply this million of Bitcoin by 42,662.10 dollars, the price of Bitcoin at the time of writing this article. That amounts to about 47 billion dollars lying dormant for a decade.

The Other Rich Bitcoin Holders

The rest of the list is composed of three distinct categories of BTC hodlers: crypto exchanges, financial giants, and governments.

Exchanges and Cryptocurrency Companies

The 2^nd place among the top 10 Bitcoin holders is currently held by Binance, the exchange once led by Changpeng Zhao. This company reportedly has 643,546 BTC at the moment.

Then comes MT.Gox, the crypto exchange that went bankrupt following a hack in 2014, with 200,000 BTC. Fortunately, the reimbursement of customers affected by this attack is in progress.

After MT. Gox comes Bitfinex (196,252 BTC) and Block.One (140,000 BTC).

Governments

Of course, as seizures of bitcoins from illicit activities on the Dark Web (including SilkRoad) progressed, the United States has amassed a nice Bitcoin fortune. Currently, the total crypto holdings seized by the government amounts to 207,189 BTC. Additionally, China, a country very repressive towards cryptocurrencies, currently holds 194,000 BTC.

Asset Managers (open to bitcoins)

Financial giants increasingly open to cryptocurrencies are also among the top 10 Bitcoin hodlers. Among them are Grayscale, with 627,779 coins, Microstrategy (152,800 BTC), Michael Saylor’s company that continues to alternate Bitcoin purchases, and Robinhood, the American broker that is increasingly open to cryptos.

However, it seems strange not to find Coinbase in this list. This American crypto exchange reportedly has about 1 million BTC, according to Arkham Intelligence.