Bitcoin rich list 2025 revealed: Who owns the most BTC?

As Bitcoin cements its role as a macro-level asset in 2025, the distribution of its ownership reveals a fascinating power structure across global institutions, tech-savvy states, retail exchanges, and a few enigmatic individuals. From strategic cold wallets of exchanges to untouched hoards in Satoshi Nakamoto’s wallet, the list is ever evolving. Institutional inflows via ETFs, expanding sovereign treasuries, and a resurgence of dormant whale wallets have all played their part in shaping today’s crypto wealth landscape. Let’s take a closer look at who makes it to the list.

1. Exchange Cold Wallets: Standing tall with a considerable amount of Bitcoin in its cold wallets is crypto exchange Binance. It holds roughly 248,600 BTC  or approx. 1.25% of the circulating supply. These BTC aren’t used for trading, but is stored in its primary air-gapped cold wallet, used for liquidity purposes only.

U.S.-based exchange Robinhood trails with approximately 140,600 BTC. Its wallet sees only sporadic movements, typically reflecting user withdrawals. According to reports on CoinTelegraph, coming in a close third is Bitfinex, which holds around 130,010 BTC, though its wallet has seen fluctuations between 130k–156k. Other massive exchange-held wallets include Binance’s second cold wallet, which stores 115,000 BTC. Another prominent wallet is the Bitfinex hack recovery wallet, which is now government-held and has  94,600 BTC. These custodial wallets account for several of the largest BTC wallets in 2025, anchoring the infrastructure that supports billions in daily trading volume.

2. Institutional & Corporate Reserves: The rise of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. has driven institutional inflows to new highs. Firms like BlackRock, Fidelity, and ARK Invest now collectively manage hundreds of thousands of BTC on behalf of investors. On July 7, 2025, U.S.-based spot ETFs alone saw $217 million in net inflows, reflecting sustained demand even amid market volatility.

Let’s not forget publicly listed companies that are increasing their strategic reserves to include cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin. At the forefront is MicroStrategy, led by Michael Saylor, which has amassed nearly 600,000 BTC by mid-2025. This accounts for more than 3% of Bitcoin’s current circulating supply. The company continues to buy aggressively during market dips, cementing its role as a corporate Bitcoin standard-bearer. 

Other major corporate holders include Marathon Digital with 26,842 BTC, Japan’s Meta Planet, gaming major RIOT platforms and Elon Musk-led Tesla, all of which maintain sizable BTC reserves for treasury or operational purposes. Corporate ownership now plays a major role in Bitcoin’s liquidity and price dynamics.

3. Individual Whales: Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, still holds the title of largest known individual BTC holder with approximately 1.096 million BTC spread across early-mined addresses. None of these coins have ever moved, giving rise to constant speculation about Satoshi’s identity and intentions.

Other notable whales include the Winklevoss twins, co-founders of Gemini, who are believed to hold over 70,000 BTC. There are also numerous anonymous addresses holding between 10,000–100,000 BTC, often dormant, suggesting early adopters who remain long-term believers or strategic players lying low.

Occasionally, decades-old wallets from 2009–2011 resurface, when whales shift or consolidate holdings, it often sends ripples through the market. According to BTC frame, there are about 21,855 wallet addresses that hold over $10 million worth of Bitcoin. Whereas 49,250,366 addresses own less than $1 worth of BTC.

4. Sovereign & State Holdings: Governments of various nations have quietly become major Bitcoin holders, often through seizures, mining, or strategic accumulation. El Salvador was among the first countries to make Bitcoin a legal tender. Though it revoked Bitcoin’s legal tender status in 2025, the country continues its “1 BTC a day” buying initiative, with a total holding near 6,000 BTC.

The Himalayan country of Bhutan has taken an innovative approach, by mining  Bitcoin using its hydropower surplus. Its national holding is estimated between 12,000–13,000 BTC, potentially amounting to 30–40% of its GDP. Iran too mines Bitcoin using state-sanctioned energy infrastructure and directs the mined BTC to its central bank for trade resilience under sanctions.

If we were to consider BTC seizures by agencies through criminal investigations (e.g., Silk Road, Bitfinex hacks, then the United States has assets of around 207,189 BTC that are stored under the U.S. Marshals Service and occasionally auctioned. Similarly United Kingdom controls around 61,000 BTC, which it acquired via enforcement actions. A recent report suggests that London is looking to sell about 7 billion GBP worth of Bitcoin to finance its deficit.

And despite banning crypto trading and mining, the Chinese government still holds an estimated 194,000 BTC. This was mostly acquired through the 2019 PlusToken Ponzi scheme. 

5. Emerging Wallet Trends: 2025 has seen a notable shift in wallet dynamics, We’ve seen many Dormant whale wallets that were inactive since 2011, become active again. In one case, over 20,000 BTC was transferred from decade-old addresses to new cold storage wallets, suggesting long-term repositioning or inheritance transfers.

On-chain analytics also show a trend of wallet consolidation, where multiple small wallets are merged into larger ones. This could be attributed to users adopting custodial services or improving internal treasury structures within institutions.

Bitcoin remains highly concentrated among major players, exchanges, institutions, sovereign reserves as well as growing numbers of ETFs. But one can’t disregard the  recent activity by dormant wallets and mid‑tier investors, which hints at a subtle shift toward broader distribution.