Data suggests that a significant portion of Bitcoin could be in the hands of a limited number of larger wallets, potentially pointing to rising concentration.
As Bitcoin (BTC) adoption grows, ownership continues to concentrate among larger wallets, leaving retail investors with a shrinking share, per new data from Santiment.
As of May 13, wallets holding at least 10 BTC — worth about $1 million or more — controlled over 82% of the total mined Bitcoin supply. As Santiment analysts suggest, only around 17.5% of Bitcoin is held by wallets “holding less than $1 million in BTC.”
Wallets with 100 BTC or more — currently valued at over $10 million — now hold more than 60% of the total supply. Santiment noted that the 10-100 BTC group can be broadly classified as “mainly comprised of small institutional investors,” while wallets over 100 BTC are mostly held by “institutionals and liquidity providers (with occasional exceptions of very large retail wallets, of course).”
Some 3.47 million BTC remain in wallets holding fewer than 10 BTC, worth an estimated $358 billion. Whether this smaller group will continue to hold or sell could depend on future market sentiment, the analysts claim.
“Historically, major price retraces tend to instigate retail panic-selling, followed by larger wallets absorbing more of the loose coins that retail is no longer comfortable holding for the long run.”
Santiment
Crypto mining has also become less accessible for individuals due to high costs and lower rewards. On top of that, many crypto miners have fully “embraced eager institutional investors, and often take profit shortly after their successful mining sessions are complete,” the analysts added.
Santiment estimates that between 3 million and 4 million Bitcoin “could be gone for good” due to lost private keys or inaccessible wallets, while around 1.14 million coins still remain to be mined until the year 2140.
