Author: Thejaswini MA Translation: Block unicorn Introduction: If different wallets were combined 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 includes the unique (known) address where Nakamoto spent Bitcoin. Research suggests he received this Bitcoin 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 entities holding the most Bitcoin. An entity is a set of cryptographic addresses 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). Due to these characteristics, no one truly owns the entire Bitcoin network, but individuals can access and own Bitcoins through their 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 examine some individuals, companies, and wallets that have become crypto whales, 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, 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 on-chain attributed to Fidelity Custody due to its comprehensive custody approach). The US government holds 328,000 Bitcoins, which originated from the seizure of assets from criminal organizations. There are also several unidentified Bitcoin billionaires. Numerous wallets exist, most of which became inactive after the initial influx of Bitcoin. The largest Bitcoin wallets: We group wallets associated with individuals or organizations as "entities." Entities are useful because, for security and operational reasons, large holders rarely keep all their assets in a single wallet. Grouping all associated wallets into one entity allows us to more accurately and comprehensively represent that entity's total holdings and influence in the cryptocurrency market.However, it's also possible to view individual wallets without categorizing them into specific entities. The table below lists the largest individual 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. Exchanges: Coinbase is the largest Bitcoin exchange holder, holding Bitcoin for both itself and its customers. Coinbase also invests a portion of its net income in crypto assets and holds a certain amount of Bitcoin for operational purposes, such as facilitating customer withdrawals. Binance, Robinhood, and Upbit are also large Bitcoin exchange holders. Exchange-controlled cold wallets 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 Bitcoin spot ETFs in the US in January 2024, Arkham was the first institution to identify all ETF holdings on-chain. These include BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Bitwise, and ARK Invest. Grayscale is an asset management company offering a range of products to the public market. It is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group. All digital assets of Grayscale financial products are also custodied on the Coinbase platform. While Grayscale publicly discloses its Bitcoin balance, they refuse to reveal the on-chain addresses of their trusts—we successfully located these addresses on-chain, distributed across more than 1,750 different addresses, each holding no more than 1,000 Bitcoins. Governments: Many of the world's largest countries have confirmed holdings of Bitcoin, or have held Bitcoin in the past. Based on our data, the following are the five governments with the largest on-chain verified Bitcoin holdings. There may be more governments holding Bitcoin, but their holdings are yet to be verified. Asset seizures: The United States tops the list with a wallet holding 328,000 Bitcoins. This batch of Bitcoins was 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 United Kingdom holds 61,245 Bitcoins.In 2018, the Metropolitan Police seized 61,000 bitcoins from Jian Wen and Zhimin Qian, 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 is unclear whether China still holds these bitcoins or has sold them. Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Ukraine has also received bitcoin donations worth $22.8 million. According to data released by the Ukrainian government in April 2021, more than 700,000 Ukrainian public officials declared holding bitcoins, some holding as many as 18,000 bitcoins. It is claimed that Ukrainian public officials hold a total of 46,351 bitcoins. While bitcoins held by public officials are not strictly government assets, the large-scale public holding of bitcoins by public officials 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 were sold in July 2024. Sovereign States: Unlike most countries that confiscate and hold Bitcoin through criminal arrests, El Salvador boldly treats 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 cheap and abundant water resources for Bitcoin mining and invest the proceeds 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 originated from Citadel's mining operations. Citadel is a publicly listed mining company controlled by the Royal Group of the UAE through IHC (International Holdings). Publicly Listed Companies: As the value of bitcoin as a digital asset gains increasing recognition and acceptance, publicly listed companies are increasingly incorporating bitcoin 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 are 739,000 Bitcoins. MARA, a North American-listed Bitcoin mining company, is another company with a significant Bitcoin holding. The company operates nine mining farms, with an average daily production 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 also reportedly holds a vault reserve of 53,200 Bitcoins. Metaplanet, listed in Tokyo, is hailed as "Japan's MicroStrategy." The company is acquiring Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset, calling it a key hedge against prolonged yen depreciation and broader economic uncertainty. Metaplanet currently holds 35,100 Bitcoins (approximately $2.4 billion). Private Companies: According to verified on-chain data, the two private companies holding the most Bitcoin are Tether (96,300 coins) and SpaceX (8,300 coins). SpaceX first purchased Bitcoin in 2021, holding 28,000 coins at one point. 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, 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. Conclusion: Bitcoin, which started as a niche project for cryptography enthusiasts, has now developed into a globally significant financial asset, held by numerous companies, individuals, and government agencies. Bitcoin's immense appeal to users stems from its decentralized nature. This characteristic ensures that the Bitcoin network cannot be completely controlled by anyone. Even for the most determined attacker, taking control of the entire network is 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 held in inaccessible wallets, the actual total supply of Bitcoin is even lower. [Block unicorn]