Coinbase vs. BlackRock vs. Strategy: Who Really Owns the Most Bitcoin (BTC)?

Coinbase, Binance, and BlackRock collectively own millions of BTC, revealing centralized power amid decentralized cryptocurrency narratives.

Despite years of speculation about possible moves from these early mined addresses, Nakamoto’s BTC has remained largely untouched since the asset’s inception.

Bitcoin’s Top Holders Revealed

Nakamoto follows in the rankings the US-based exchange Coinbase, which holds 993,069 BTC on-chain, equivalent to 5% of the total supply. These funds represent a combination of customer deposits and company reserves, including liquidity held in reserve to meet withdrawals. Its rival, Binance, controls 661,000 BTC in custody, accounting for 3.15% of the total supply.

The institutional sector is also making a claim. Data from Arkham Intelligence revealed that BlackRock is the largest institutional holder, with 761,801 BTC. This stock is worth approximately $52 billion. ETF issuers and other asset managers such as Fidelity and Grayscale also maintain significant positions, although some of their holdings are routed through omnibus custodial accounts, making direct attribution somewhat less transparent. For example, Fidelity Custody appears to own 448,000 BTC. Meanwhile, a number of Strategy’s holdings, totaling 715,000 BTC, are reflected on-chain under Fidelity due to their custody method.

In addition to Strategy, other listed entities, including mining company MARA and Japan’s Metaplanet, have also acquired significant stakes. Moreover, private companies round out the largest holders. Popular stablecoin issuer Tether has 96,369 BTC and SpaceX owns 8,300 BTC as of August 2025.

Nations store Bitcoin

While entities like BlackRock and Coinbase hold vast amounts of money, governments like the United States, which tops the list with 328,000 BTC, are not far behind. The bulk of this came from asset seizures, including coins recovered from the Bitfinex hack, the Silk Road marketplace, and hacker James Zhong. More recently, the US government also acquired 127,000 BTC from the LuBian Hacker address.

Next is the United Kingdom with 61,245 BTC, mostly seized by Jian Wen and Zhimin Qian’s British Metropolitan Police in 2018. Chinese authorities also confiscated 194,775 BTC from the PlusToken Ponzi scheme in 2020, although it is unclear whether the Chinese government still holds or has sold these coins.

You might also like:

Ukraine has also seen significant Bitcoin involvement. Since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the country has received $22.8 million in BTC donations. More than 700,000 Ukrainian government officials have declared ownership of Bitcoin, with some owning up to 18,000 BTC, totaling almost 46,351 BTC.

Germany seized 50,000 BTC from a movie piracy website called Movie2k in January 2024, but these coins were completely sold by July 2024.