Markets
What to know:
- River’s research, as of Aug. 25, 2025, reveals that individuals still cling to about 65.9% of BTC (13.83 million coins). Bravo, darling commoners! 👏
- Funds and ETFs control a modest 7.8% of supply; businesses sit pretty with 6.2%, while governments, bless their meddling hearts, hold a mere 1.5%. 😒
- River admits the numbers are more guesstimate than gospel-derived from filings, address tagging, and prior research. No crystal ball involved. Yet. 🔮
River insists individuals remain the belle of Bitcoin’s ball. How quaint. 🎩
The U.S.-based bitcoin financial services firm unveiled its ownership distribution research in a recent post on X. The study categorizes supply into delightfully arbitrary buckets, using public filings, custodial address tagging, and earlier blockchain research. Truly, science at its finest. 🧪
River estimates individuals control about 65.9% of circulating BTC-or 13.83 million coins. This includes self-custodied wallets and exchange accounts River deems “individual.” One can only imagine the spreadsheet chaos. 📊
On the institutional side, River slices holdings into businesses and ETFs/funds. Oh, the drama! 🎭
- Businesses-a global category covering corporate treasuries and firms bold enough to report bitcoin holdings-account for about 6.2% of supply, or 1.30 million BTC. Corporate courage, how inspiring. 💼
- ETFs and funds-those spot ETFs and investment vehicles that custody coins for clients-control about 7.8%, or 1.63 million BTC. Ah, the rise of the financial machines. 🤖
Governments? A paltry 1.5%, or 306,000 BTC, based on sovereign addresses River tracks from public sources. Perhaps they’re too busy regulating to actually accumulate. 😴
Two special categories add a touch of mystery:
- Lost bitcoin makes up about 7.6%, or 1.58 million BTC. River deduced this using age heuristics, identifying coins that haven’t moved in years and are likely gone forever. RIP, forgotten fortunes. 🕯️
- Satoshi/Patoshi holdings are pegged at about 4.6%, or 968,000 BTC, based on earlier research into early-era mining patterns. Whoever they are, they’re laughing all the way to the crypto bank. 😂
Finally, about 5.2% of the supply, or 1.09 million BTC, remains unmined before Bitcoin hits its hard cap of 21 million. A race against time-or electricity bills. ⚡
In plain terms, River’s research is less fortune-telling and more educated guesswork-an attempt to map who holds bitcoin today, not predict tomorrow’s prices. Custodians aggregate clients, wallets are misclassified, and ownership remains delightfully murky. What fun! 🎢
River concludes that individuals still dominate holdings, but institutions are catching up faster than one might expect. Thanks to ETFs and companies treating bitcoin as a balance-sheet asset, the days of individual supremacy may be numbered. Tsk tsk. 😈
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2025-08-30 20:54