For the past 13 months, the number of Bitcoin “whole-coiners” – referring to addresses holding one or more Bitcoin – has consistently stayed above 1 million.
The milestone of one million wholecoiner wallet addresses was initially achieved on May 13, 2023, when Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at a modest $27,000, as reported by Glassnode data. This figure reached its peak on January 1 of this year, surpassing 1,024,000 wallets holding one or more Bitcoin.
Despite the substantial increase in Bitcoin’s value since May 2023, with the price now double what it was then, the number of wallet addresses holding one Bitcoin or more currently stands at 1,010,800.
This milestone of one million Bitcoin wallets signifies a notable surge in Bitcoin ownership. It should be noted, however, that a single Bitcoin wallet address does not always equate to one individual. Many crypto investors have multiple Bitcoin addresses, and other addresses are owned by major institutions like cryptocurrency exchanges and investment firms that hold significant amounts of Bitcoin.
Out of the 19.7 million Bitcoins in circulation, 2.48 million (worth $152 billion) are held on major centralized exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase. Furthermore, an estimated 3 million BTC (worth $80.4 billion), which make up 17% of the total circulating supply, are considered “lost forever,” according to Glassnode estimates.
When Bitcoin was first introduced on January 3, 2009, only one wallet address – belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto – held more than 1 Bitcoin. This number quickly grew to 30,000 by the start of 2010 and continued to increase rapidly over the next 8 years.
There have been instances where the number of Bitcoin wholecoiner wallet addresses experienced significant declines, dropping by 30,000 or more. This occurred three times: between March and May 2016, during the bear market between September and December 2018, and once again between February and July 2021 following a sharp sell-off after a previous meteoric rally.
It is worth noting that ‘Bitcoin Layer 2s’ may not truly be L2s – the significance of this distinction is elaborated upon in a recent magazine article.