Who Owns Most Bitcoin in 2024?

It is hardly unexpected that the person who created Bitcoin under anonymity, Satoshi Nakamoto, continues to remain at the first spot among top Bitcoin holders. They hold an incredible 1.1 million Bitcoin. No one knows who Satoshi Nakamoto is since he was never keen to reveal his real name.

The remarkable amassing of Bitcoin was from Satoshi Nakamoto’s mining endeavors in the early stages of Bitcoin. Satoshi mined up to 54,316 Bitcoin blocks before the first halving event, earning 50 BTC for each block.

The intriguing thing is that Nakamoto, as leader of the largest Bitcoin holders, never used the Bitcoin he received as block rewards. Rather, Bitcoin remains inactive across  22,000 distinct wallet addresses.

The value of Bitcoin may fluctuate significantly if any of these coins shift, resulting in a ripple effect on the whole cryptocurrency market.

The second on the list are the Winklevoss Twins, who founded a rival company to compete with Facebook in its early days. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are prominent people in the Bitcoin and tech industries. Before their lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly copying their concept, they founded HarvardConnection, an early version of Facebook. Consequently, they received a settlement of $65 million, which they chose to invest in Bitcoin.

The Winklevoss Twins Net Worth, Bitcoin Holdings, Olympic Medals, and Personal Life have been interesting for all crypto participants. 

The Winklevoss Twins are regarded as innovators in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies today. The brothers are co-founders of the crypto exchange Gemini, established in 2015. Thanks to the platform, the brothers have made a name for themselves as top Bitcoin holders. Winklevoss Twins own around 70,000 Bitcoin now.

Tim Draper, an American investor who founded Draper Fisher Jurveston company, is the third individual to own the most Bitcoin in the world.

Tim Draper was revealed as one of the largest Bitcoin holders in 2012 for the first time when he committed his first Bitcoin. He made the second investment in 2014 when he purchased 29,500 BTC in an auction held by US Marshals and joined the Bitcoin rich list. The Bitcoins came from the infamous marketplace Silk Soad. It was the starting point of his appearance in the crypto top list.

Michael Saylor is another well-known advocate of crypto who believes that Bitcoin’s price will rise due to its potential to become digital gold.

He officially announced on Twitter in 2020 that he is holding 17,732 Bitcoins. He had an excellent performance as co-founder of MicroStrategy company, and the company is now the largest Bitcoin-holding firm, thanks to its founder.

MicroStrategy, one of the top business intelligence companies, holds more Bitcoin than most ETFs and governments. It is the top name among the largest Bitcoin holding companies. The company holds over 174,530 Bitcoin. Even more impressive is the company’s co-founder, Saylor, who is at number 4 on this list.

MicroStrategy obtained its wealth by buying Bitcoin in its early days when it was not as expensive as it is today.

Due to the huge number of Bitcoins that MicroStrategy and its co-founder own, they are one of the biggest holders of Bitcoin and influencers in the market who can affect the Bitcoin price with small movements.

The company was established in 2010 and has been committed to mining cryptocurrencies since its foundation. Almost none of its mined Bitcoins were sold till September 2023, when the company announced that it would sell 1,700 Bitcoins to compensate for its expenses and expand the fundamental basics of the company.

The company owns more than 15,147 Bitcoins and never sells them, except to improve mining machines and capacity.

Elon Musk is the most famous name that people recall when someone asks who owns the most Bitcoin. His attribution to the crypto market is one of the most market-moving forces in recent years. It is not clear if he personally owns any Bitcoin. However, Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, declared in February 2021 that it had acquired $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, making it one of the largest Bitcoin holders. 

Tesla possessed 42,902 Bitcoins at the beginning of 2022. However, it was revealed in July 2022 that Tesla had sold 75% of their assets, lowering the total to 10,725. Tesla now owns 9,720 Bitcoins, making it one of the largest Bitcoin holders today. 

At one point, Tesla accepted Bitcoin payments for its vehicles. However, the business eliminated the ability to pay with Bitcoin, claiming environmental concerns. They do intend to reintroduce Bitcoin payments, eventually.

Another Bitcoin Whale in this list is Hut 8. Hut 8 declared in January 2024 that they had mined 453 Bitcoins in December 2023. Hut 8 concluded its merger with U.S. Data Mining Group around this time. To create the Hut 8 Corp., there was an all-stock merger of equals. Although Hut 8 prefers to keep its Bitcoins long-term rather than sell them for cash, they are ready to sell if needed to pay off debt and upgrade mining hardware. 

Hut 8 Mining owns 9,195 Bitcoins, mined using a combination of nuclear and hydropower. The business also mines Ethereum, but it does not keep Ethereum for very long. Instead, the coins are changed into Bitcoin.

Coinbase owns about 9,000 Bitcoins, making it another large Bitcoin whale. This represents the number of Bitcoins the corporation Coinbase listed as an investment on its balance sheet. For its clients, Coinbase is also keeping hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins. These, however, are not corporate assets. Simply said, Coinbase is holding these customer currencies on behalf of the depositor.

Co-founder Fred Ehrsam owns 4.5% of Coinbase, while CEO Brian Armstrong owns 16%. Since Coinbase is a publicly traded firm, venture capital funds and the general public control the remaining business.

Block Inc. is a public American corporation established in 2009 by Jim McKelvey and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. The corporation, which was founded as Square Inc., is made up of several financial technology companies.

Square is a subdiary of Block, a payment solution designed for small and medium-sized enterprises, enabling them to take credit card payments.

In the third quarter of 2023, the company brought in $5.62 billion in revenues and made $44 million in earnings on its Bitcoin holdings.  At an estimated cost of $170 million, the corporation bought about 3,318 Bitcoins in February 2021, increasing Square’s total holdings to about 8,027 bitcoins.

Many Bitcoin whales may not be on this list because of their desire to remain anonymous or splitting their Bitcoins across many wallets. Most of the largest Bitcoin holders prefer anonymity for privacy concerns, fearing becoming a target for hackers or thieves. 

This Bitcoin rich list will help traders, investors, analysts, companies, and even tax organizations to recognize wealth distribution and find trends in Bitcoin holding.