{"id":869120,"date":"2025-08-30T21:12:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T02:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/30\/most-bitcoin-still-belongs-to-individuals-but-institutions-are-catching-up-research\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T21:12:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T02:12:46","slug":"most-bitcoin-still-belongs-to-individuals-but-institutions-are-catching-up-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/30\/most-bitcoin-still-belongs-to-individuals-but-institutions-are-catching-up-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Bitcoin Still Belongs to Individuals, but Institutions Are Catching Up: Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-module-name=\"article-header\" data-module-version=\"1.0.0\" data-module-instance=\"default\">\n<h2>Most Bitcoin Still Belongs to Individuals, but Institutions Are Catching Up: Research<\/h2>\n<h2>River\u2019s research estimates BTC ownership at 65.9% for individuals, 7.8% for funds, 6.2% for businesses and 1.5% for governments. About 7.6% is believed to be lost.<\/h2>\n<p><span>Updated Aug 30, 2025, 7:35\u202fp.m. <\/span><span>Published Aug 30, 2025, 5:04\u202fp.m. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-module-name=\"article-body\" data-module-version=\"1.0.0\" data-module-instance=\"default\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/river.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">River<\/a> says individuals still own the majority of bitcoin.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S.-based bitcoin financial services firm revealed ownership distribution research dated Aug. 25 in a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/River\/status\/1961090548615221300\" target=\"_blank\">post on X<\/a>. The study groups bitcoin supply into a few categories and shows the market share of each, using public filings, custodial address tagging and earlier blockchain research.<\/p>\n<p>River estimates individuals control about 65.9% of circulating BTC, or 13.83 million coins. This bucket includes self-custodied wallets and exchange accounts that River classifies as individual.<\/p>\n<p>On the institutional side, River divides holdings into businesses, ETFs and funds.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Businesses \u2014 a global category covering corporate treasuries and conventional firms that report bitcoin holdings \u2014 account for about 6.2% of supply, or 1.30 million BTC.<\/li>\n<li>ETFs and funds \u2014 spot ETFs and investment vehicles that custody coins for clients \u2014 control about 7.8%, or 1.63 million BTC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Governments are shown at about 1.5%, or 306,000 BTC, based on sovereign addresses tracked from public sources.<\/p>\n<p>Two special categories round out the distribution:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lost bitcoin makes up about 7.6%, or 1.58 million BTC. River says this is inferred from age heuristics, which show coins that have not moved for many years and are likely unrecoverable.<\/li>\n<li>Satoshi\/Patoshi holdings are pegged at about 4.6%, or 968,000 BTC, based on earlier research into early-era mining patterns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Finally, about 5.2% of the supply, or 1.09 million BTC, has yet to be mined before the hard cap of 21 million is reached.<\/p>\n<figure><img alt=\"River research infographic showing bitcoin ownership distribution by category\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"720\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\"  src=\"http:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/_next\/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2Fb6e2c068e2c6641f883576c839c43241ac14556d-1200x720.png%3Fauto%3Dformat&#038;w=3840&#038;q=75\"><\/p>\n<p><figcaption>River\u2019s research estimates as of Aug. 25, 2025, individuals hold 65.9% of BTC, funds 7.8% <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In plain terms, River\u2019s research is an attempt to map who holds bitcoin today, not to forecast future prices. The estimates are not definitive, since custodians aggregate many clients, some wallets are misclassified, and ownership can be opaque.<\/p>\n<p>River\u2019s conclusion is that individuals still dominate holdings, but the institutional share is expanding, helped by the growth of ETFs and companies that now treat bitcoin as a balance-sheet asset.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span class>AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to <\/span><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"http:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/ethics\">our standards<\/a>. <span class>For more information, see <\/span><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"http:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/coindesk-news\/2023\/04\/14\/how-coindesk-will-use-generative-ai-tools\">CoinDesk&#8217;s full AI Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-module-name=\"read-next\" data-module-version=\"1.0.0\" data-module-instance=\"default\">\n<p>More For You<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Crypto Charts Look &#8216;So Broken and Bearish They\u2019re Bullish&#8217; Ahead of Fed Meeting, Says Analyst<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Physical bitcoin and ether tokens placed in front of trading screen with charts.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\"  src=\"http:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/_next\/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2F4c81d60fadf5846c42407b3b2dd33be7f12d2aad-6172x4469.jpg%3Fauto%3Dformat&#038;w=3840&#038;q=75\"><\/figure>\n<p>Alex Kr\u00fcger says recent liquidations and scary charts could set up a bullish rebound, though conviction trends may wait until after the Fed\u2019s Sept. 17 decision.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>What to know: <\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Analyst Alex Kr\u00fcger says extreme bearish-looking charts can flip bullish once forced selling clears leverage.<\/li>\n<li>He sees little trend until after the Fed\u2019s next rate decision on Sept. 17, following the conclusion of the two-day FOMC meeting.<\/li>\n<li>Kr\u00fcger insists the cycle isn\u2019t over and sees SOL as a possible outlier due to new decentralized treasuries building on the chain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/markets\/2025\/08\/30\/crypto-charts-look-so-broken-and-bearish-they-re-bullish-ahead-of-fed-meeting-says-analyst\">Read full story<svg width=\"21\" height=\"21\" viewBox=\"0 0 21 21\" fill=\"none\"><mask id=\"mask0_2473_9121\" style=\"mask-type:alpha\" maskUnits=\"userSpaceOnUse\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\" width=\"21\" height=\"21\"><rect x=\"0.5\" y=\"0.500366\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" fill=\"#D9D9D9\" \/><\/mask><g mask=\"url(#mask0_2473_9121)\"><path d=\"M12.0385 15.2119L11.1602 14.3081L14.3429 11.1254H4.25V9.8754H14.3429L11.1602 6.69269L12.0385 5.78894L16.75 10.5004L12.0385 15.2119Z\" fill=\"#262626\" \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/markets\/2025\/08\/30\/most-bitcoin-still-belongs-to-individuals-but-institutions-are-catching-up-research\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Siamak Masnavi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most Bitcoin Still Belongs to Individuals, but Institutions Are Catching Up: Research River\u2019s research estimates BTC ownership at 65.9% for individuals, 7.8% for funds, 6.2% for businesses and 1.5% for governments. About 7.6% is believed to be lost. Updated Aug 30, 2025, 7:35\u202fp.m. Published Aug 30, 2025, 5:04\u202fp.m. River says individuals still own the majority<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":869121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4041,1441],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-869120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bitcoin","8":"category-still"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}