According to data provided by Eric Balchunas, one of the leading ETF analysts, US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs have now surpassed Satoshi Nakamoto as the top holders of the largest cryptocurrency.
After the most recent update, these products hold a total of 1.104 million BTC. For comparison, Satoshi's Bitcoin holdings stand at an estimated 1.1 million.
Blachunas described the milestone as "mindblowing," noting that these products were launched less than a year ago.
Alex DovbnyaBlackRock's IBIT alone has now surpassed $50 billion in total assets, substantially outperforming other ETFs.
As reported by U.Today, Balchunas has predicted that IBIT could become the sole biggest holder of Bitcoin in 2025.
Cryptocurrency giant Binance, business intelligence firm MicroStrategy, and the US government are also among the top five biggest Bitcoin holders.
While Satoshi remains in second place, it should be noted that their total Bitcoin holdings are hard to ascertain. Chainalysis, the most prominent blockchain sleuth, estimated that Satoshi owns 1.124 million BTC across a total of 36,000 wallets. If this estimate is accurate, this means that Satoshi remains the latest Bitcoin holder (at least for now). Moreover, there could be additional wallets that were not taken into account by Chainalysis.
That said, it is unlikely that Satoshi is going to touch their wallets again. As reported by U.Today, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz recently argued that the Bitcoin founder is no longer alive.
There is also some speculation about whether the Bitcoin creator has a dead man’s switch that could possibly allow transferring their vast fortune to their loved ones.
Despite not being active online for over a decade, this mysterious figure continues to have significant influence within the community, and Satoshi's sudden reappearance could have dramatic impact on the price of Bitcoin.
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Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov