PANews reported on February 11 that according to Beincrypto, Bitwise Asset Management reported that individual holders control most of the total supply of Bitcoin. Of the 21 million Bitcoins in circulation, 69.4% belong to private investors. Given this concentration of Bitcoin ownership among individuals, large institutions and governments may face challenges in trying to acquire Bitcoin. In a recent X-platform post, Bitwise outlined the distribution of Bitcoin's total supply. In addition to individual holders, approximately 7.5% of Bitcoin is believed to be lost. Funds and ETPs control 6.1% of Bitcoin. Wallets associated with Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, hold 4.6% of Bitcoin. In addition, governments and companies hold only 5.8% of Bitcoin in total.
Bitwise stressed that if companies and governments want to acquire Bitcoin, they mainly need to buy it from individuals who are willing to sell. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley also pointed out that despite continued buying by companies and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Bitcoin's price is still facing downward pressure. He also emphasized that most of Bitcoin's value is still in the hands of individual holders.
Meanwhile, only 5.7% of all Bitcoins remain to be mined. Moreover, there is not much Bitcoin left in the OTC market. One cryptocurrency analyst noted that there are only about 140,000 Bitcoins left in the OTC market. “Even institutions have almost no Bitcoin left to buy,” he claimed. The analyst explained that ETFs collectively bought 50,000 Bitcoins last month. Yet, the price movement remains flat. This suggests that institutions are taking Bitcoin from the OTC market instead of exchanges to avoid triggering price increases. However, with the OTC supply decreasing, this strategy may no longer be viable.
