Data Reveals Skewness In EOS Tokens Ownership

Cryptocurrencies have always been under the radar for price manipulation as it is believed that only a few people or organizations hold the maximum chuck. Bitcoins have always been under the radar as it is believed that nearly 40% of the mined bitcoins are held by less than 1000 people. The latest token in this category is EOS.

Decentralization questioned

A study of six snapshots of EOS ownership posted by the user named Lannisan on Reddit revealed that out of 1 billion EOS token present, nearly 500 million were accumulated by 10 addresses. These statistics have put the EOS crypto under interrogation creating a stir among investors and researchers.

Although exactly identifying and distinguishing these addresses is very difficult, the holding structure analysis posted does give a vague identification. Block.one, the main company supporting the EOS currently holds around 100 million tokens which are 10% of the total supply. The remaining addresses seem to be of the exchanges where EOS is traded. This includes likes of Bitfinex, Bithumb, Huobi, Upbit etc. The analysis further shows that 380 million EOS tokens are held by 8 addresses with the smallest holder among them holds 20.6 million tokens.

These statistics have questioned EOS decentralization stating that 15% owners had very little influence on the ecosystem where top 1000 addresses held equal to around 85% of the tokens.

Lannisan further edited the post in reply to comments which mentioned that the list shouldn’t have included in the list. His post said

“Edit: As /u/auser8 correctly points out, the one downside to this list is that many of the top holders are likely exchange accounts and as they won’t release any data on this, we have no way of knowing how many people own the EOS on the exchanges or how much of it they control. If an exchange has 50 million EOS sitting on it, that could be controlled by 5 whales with 10 million EOS each or 500,000 casual users with 100 EOS each, but we have no way of knowing. Depending on the exchange distribution, that will make a huge difference as to how much power the top holders actually have.”

Also, read: TRON Coin Goes Red: Hype & Security Issues Negatively Affecting Tron?

Are investors trapped?

This news comes as a surprise and caution at the time when Block.one raised USD 4 billion a week back from Crowd sale for development of blockchain software and is believed to be in a position to be at par with Ethereum. With this information released, many believe that there could be a potential bias and skewness with regards to distribution of coins and thus be hampering the faith and long-term plans of EOS. The timing of this revelation and Block.one non-participation in this capital raise has also viewed a trap which investors may not be able to exit very easily.