More Than Half of Bitcoin Supply Held in Wallets With Unidentified Owners, Signaling Strong Self-Custody
Summary
- More than half of Bitcoin's circulating supply is stored in wallets whose owners cannot be identified.
- Galaxy Research said it could not identify the holders of 11.1 million Bitcoin, or 55% of the roughly 20.1 million Bitcoin mined.
- Alex Thorn said a significant amount of Bitcoin may still be held by individuals in self-custody.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
More than half of Bitcoin's circulating supply is held in wallets whose owners cannot be identified.
CoinDesk reported on October 26 that Galaxy Research was unable to identify the holders of 11.1 million Bitcoin, or 55% of the roughly 20.1 million tokens mined as of October.
That means the Bitcoin is not held in wallets tied to known entities such as exchanges, exchange-traded funds or governments.
"Even after years of institutional adoption and growing centralized Bitcoin holdings, more than half of the total supply remains in wallets with unidentified owners," Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Research, said. He added that a significant share of Bitcoin may still be held by individuals through self-custody.
Self-custody refers to holding Bitcoin without using an exchange or custodian, with individuals managing their own wallet private keys.
The rest of the circulating supply with identifiable owners is held by exchanges, ETFs and the U.S. government.
Uk Jin
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