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Please note!
This fact brief was originally published as an experiment to test the concepts behind fact briefs.
Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of useful information in fact briefs like this one, not all of them reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

Is the majority of Bitcoin owned by relatively few investors?

By Austin Tannenbaum
YES

According to Bloomberg, around 2% of Bitcoin addresses own 95% of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

The cryptocurrency analyst Glassnode offers the caveat that “one address can hold funds from...millions of users.” In an alternative measure based on Bitcoin ownership brackets, Glassnode found that:

  • The largest 2,220 investors (>1,000 Bitcoins) accounted for about a third of the Bitcoin supply.
  • 11,500 medium-sized investors (100-1,000 Bitcoins) accounted for about 18%.
  • 643,000 small investors (1-100 Bitcoins) accounted for about 22%.
  • 22 million "shrimp" investors (<1 Bitcoin) accounted for about 5%.
  • The remainder was accounted for by 51,000 Bitcoin miners and 15 exchanges.

While noting that both small and large Bitcoin investment are on the rise, Glassnode concluded that “around 2% of network entities control 71.5% of all Bitcoin” in an upper-bound estimate.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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