The funds have purchased 1,104,534 BTC since January, surpassing the 1,100,000 in Satoshi’s public addresses.
U.S. Spot ETFs Surpass Satoshi in Bitcoin Held
The spot bitcoin ETFs approved by the SEC earlier this year now collectively hold more bitcoin (BTC) than anyone else in the world, including Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto himself, according to data from industry insiders.
Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas posted data on X showing that U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs now hold 1,104,534 BTC, slightly more than the estimated 1,100,000 bitcoin in Satoshi’s wallets.
Largest bitcoin holders (Eric Balchunas/X)
Investment firm Hashdex converted its futures fund into a spot bitcoin ETF fund in March and was not included in Balchunas’s total. Hashdex’s ETF which trades under the ticker DEFI currently has 147.85 BTC according to its prospectus.
Blackrock, the largest investment manager in the world, holds nearly half of all the bitcoin purchased by the ETFs in its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) – a staggering 521,375 BTC.
“They’re not even a year old yet, literally babies still. Mind blowing,” Balchunas said, referring to the nascency of the ETFs.
With the dominant cryptocurrency crossing the $100,000 barrier on Wednesday and now being held in large amounts by the largest and most prestigious Wall Street firms, many like Balchunas are celebrating, but others warn of a cautionary tale.
Longtime Bitcoin Core Developer and Maintainer Jonas Schnelli responded to Balchunas with a chilling rebuttal.
“This is not something to celebrate,” Schnelli said. “It’s a dangerous sign of centralization – exactly what Bitcoin was designed to prevent.”
