The number of Bitcoin “whole-coiners” — referring to addresses holding one or more Bitcoin — has consistently exceeded 1 million for the past 13 months.
Achieving the milestone of one million “wholecoiner” addresses initially occurred on May 13, 2023, at a time when Bitcoin (BTC) was valued at just $27,000, based on Glassnode data.
This figure peaked on January 1 this year, with slightly over 1,024,000 wallets containing at least one Bitcoin, as reported by Glassnode. Despite Bitcoin’s price doubling since May 2023, the count of addresses holding one Bitcoin or more currently stands at 1,010,800.
The milestone underscores a notable rise in Bitcoin ownership. However, it’s essential to recognize that a single Bitcoin wallet address doesn’t necessarily equate to one individual. Many cryptocurrency investors manage multiple Bitcoin addresses, and others belong to prominent institutions like crypto exchanges and investment firms, which often hold substantial Bitcoin sums.
Out of the 19.7 million Bitcoins presently in circulation, major centralized exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase hold 2.48 million BTC, equivalent to $152 billion.
Moreover, an estimated 3 million BTC — worth $80.4 billion and constituting 17% of the total circulating supply — are considered “lost forever,” according to Glassnode.
When Bitcoin launched on January 3, 2009, only one wallet address, belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto, held more than 1 Bitcoin. This number swiftly grew to 30,000 by early 2010 and accelerated over the subsequent eight years.
There have been periods where Bitcoin wholecoiner wallet counts experienced significant declines, dropping by 30,000 or more on three distinct occasions: between March and May 2016, from September to December 2018 during a prolonged bear market, and again from February to July 2021 following a sharp selloff subsequent to a rapid price surge months earlier.