One in six BTC on centralized exchanges despite the FTX collapse

Binance controls nearly a third of the exchange’s supply, underscoring how liquidity power is concentrated in a few locations.

Nearly 3 million Bitcoin (BTC), worth approximately $200 billion and representing 15% of the circulating supply, currently resides on centralized exchange platforms.

The concentration of assets on trading platforms shows that despite the shock of the 2022 FTX collapse and years of industry reports of self-custody, around one in six existing BTC is still stored with third-party intermediaries.

Binance dominates

Data shared by crypto analyst Darkfost shows that centralized foreign exchange reserves have increased alongside the expansion of trading services.

Platforms now offer yield generation, collateralized derivatives products and credit solutions, all of which require significant Bitcoin reserves to meet users’ liquidity needs. The result is that approximately 3 million BTC are now on exchanges, with distribution heavily skewed towards market leaders.

According to the on-chain observer, Binance has the largest share and controls about 30% of all Bitcoin stored on centralized platforms. Bitfinex follows with almost 20% of reserves, while Robinhood and South Korea’s Upbit each account for about 8.2%. Kraken, OKX and Gemini round out the top tier with stakes between 5% and 7% respectively.

The concentration becomes even clearer when we look at absolute figures. According to data from CoinGlass, Coinbase Pro currently holds around 792,000 BTC, making it the largest exchange holder despite its smaller percentage of the CEX-specific rankings. Binance follows with almost 662,000 BTC, while Bitfinex holds approximately 430,000 BTC.

“The liquidity depth, rapid order execution, and access to additional services such as lending and staking help maintain a significant portion of Bitcoin’s circulating supply within these centralized infrastructures,” Darkfost noted in their analysis.

This observation is consistent with trading volume data showing that the concentration of activity is continuing, with a CryptoQuant report from earlier this year showing that Binance will capture more than 40% of spot and Bitcoin perpetual volumes on major global exchanges by 2025. The platform also processed $25.4 trillion in Bitcoin perpetual futures alone.

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The $200 billion held on exchanges represents a complex market dynamic because, while total foreign exchange reserves are significant, there have been mixed moves across platforms over the past month.

CoinGlass data shows that total currency balances increased by around 16,990 BTC over the past 30 days, but individual platform trends varied significantly. For example, Binance added more than 22,000 BTC during that period, while OKX and Bithumb recorded outflows of more than 2,700 BTC and 3,600 BTC, respectively. Gemini saw the biggest drop in 30 days, with balances falling by almost 13,900 BTC.

These moves are taking place against the backdrop of evolving exchange business models and regulatory positioning. Kraken confidentially filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November 2025, following an $800 million funding round that valued the stock at $20 billion.

Meanwhile, Robinhood, which holds about 8.2% of BTC reserves, recently launched the public testnet for Robinhood Chain in February 2026, an Ethereum Layer 2 network built on Arbitrum, designed to accelerate the development of tokenized assets.