Crypto market at shock as Retail Bitcoin Ownership Shrinks to 17% as Large Holders Tighten Grip
The original vision of Bitcoin as a tool for financial decentralization appears increasingly out of reach, with new data revealing that everyday investors control a diminishing share of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply.
According to a report published on May 14 by blockchain analytics firm Santiment, retail wallets holding less than 10 BTC collectively account for just 3.47 million coins representing 17.5% of Bitcoin’s total supply.
At current market rates, this amounts to approximately $358 billion in value.
A Growing Imbalance
A deeper dive into the data reveals an even starker disparity.
Wallets holding less than 1 BTC typically representing smaller retail investors own under 7% of the total Bitcoin supply.
Conversely, wealthier entities continue to amass the majority of available Bitcoin.
Santiment’s findings highlight that wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC now control over 68% of the circulating supply, amounting to more than 13.5 million BTC, or an estimated $1.39 trillion in dollar terms.
This group includes early Bitcoin adopters, institutional investors, high-net-worth individuals, and centralized exchanges.
Institutional Dominance
Within this concentration of wealth, wallets with 100 to 1,000 BTC command around 23.5% of the supply, while those holding between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC account for an additional 22.8%.
Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase also maintain substantial holdings.
Collectively, exchange wallets possess more than 7.4 million BTC, making them pivotal players in market liquidity and price dynamics.
Implications for Bitcoin’s Decentralization Vision
The increasing dominance of large holders underscores the challenges facing Bitcoin’s original promise of decentralization and financial inclusivity.
As institutional and corporate entities consolidate control over the cryptocurrency’s supply, concerns persist about market influence, liquidity risks, and the potential marginalization of everyday retail investors.
With Bitcoin’s total supply capped at 21 million, the current ownership distribution suggests that wealth concentration in the crypto space is replicating patterns long observed in traditional financial systems.
