Many people often wonder how the existing supply for Bitcoin is distributed. There were some miners in the early days who hold tens of thousands of BTC. However, some wallets have been lost or corrupted, and not all of the stored funds will be made accessible again. According to Bitcoin Rich List, the distribution of Bitcoin is not overly unbalanced.
Bitcoin Is Distributed In An Interesting Manner
Some people will argue that significant balance holders will have an unfair advantage over other Bitcoin users. Up to a certain extent, that may be entirely true. Then again, those people were early adopters of Bitcoin, and there are multiple wallets in this range which can no longer be accessed.
It is equally important to keep in mind various Bitcoin exchanges hold a lot of funds in cold storage. Even though that funds does not belong to them, it will play tricks on the chart diagram found on Bitcoin Rich List. On the other hand, there are also investors who bought Bitcoin at incredibly low prices, and they may still be holding on to a significant portion of their assets right now.
Looking at the pie chart, some interesting percentages come to light. Only four Bitcoin addresses hold a wallet balance of over 100,000 Bitcoin. And at least one of those belongs to Satoshi Nakamoto. Whether or not that funds will ever be spent, is anybody’s guess right now. It is possible, but it may never happen.
The majority of all Bitcoins in circulation is owned by people who have between 10 and 1,000 Bitcoin in their wallets. To be more precise, 26.75% of all coins are held by addresses containing 10-100 Bitcoin. On Top of that, 22.79% of the current supply is in the hands of address owners with a balance of 100 – 1,000 Bitcoin.
Note from the Author: Multiplying the amount of coins held by these addresses at the current Bitcoin price will yield false results. The majority of these coins were purchased or mined when prices were well below US$200.
Most people will fret over how four addresses hold 2.79% of the available Bitcoin supply today. Moreover, 105 addresses hold another 17.23% of all Bitcoins. Granted, this is a rather uneven distribution at the top. But when looking at the overall distribution, things seem to even out more evenly. As more people venture into Bitcoin, these balances will continue to shift over time.
Image credit 1
If you liked this article follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin and altcoin price analysis and the latest cryptocurrency news.
