Bitcoin addresses holding 1 BTC or more reach one million. US Department of Justice among the large bitcoin holders.

The number of Bitcoin wallet addresses holding one whole BTC or more has surpassed the one million mark suggesting long-term sentiment for the tokens remains intact even as broader markets weigh down bitcoin prices. The one million wholecoiner milestone was reached on May 13, according to data from Glassnode. This is a 20% bump since February last year.

What’s next for the crypto market will be discussed at lenght in the trading panel at Banking 4.0.

As the price of Bitcoin fell more than 65% over the course of last year, the number of wallet addresses holding one Bitcoin or more spiked, with the most notable surges occurring during an acute market crash in June and from November 11, the date that FTX collapsed and subsequently filed for bankruptcy.

In total, a whopping 190,000 or so wholecoiners were added from early-February, 2022 as the price of Bitcoin fell from its November 2021 highs, says Binance in a blog post. 

A major bump in such wallets came after the implosion of crypto exchange FTX between November and January. The data shows that bitcoin wallets holding one token grew by 79,000 in that period – amid the collapse of crypto exchange FTX as prices fell from over $22,000 to briefly under $16,000.

US Department of Justice among the large bitcoin holders

Over time, bitcoin ownership has become distributed in strata based on total bitcoin wealth. These categories are based on the total number of bitcoin located at an address.

The amount of bitcoin that each stratum of addresses owns in relation to the entire bitcoin supply fluctuates over time. Today, only four bitcoin addresses contain 100,000 – 1,000,000 BTC for a total of 663,306 BTC. The next 112 largest owners, who range from 10,000 – 100,000 BTC, own a total of 2,378,961 BTC. These wealthiest 112 addresses account for 12.32% of the total supply. Bitcoin addresses with 10,000 or more bitcoin are sometimes referred to as whales.

Governments across the world own an estimated 244,779 BTC, representing 1.17% of the total supply, according to River Financial. The Chinese government reportedly holds 194,000 BTC that was recovered from the Plustoken scam in 2019. Members of the Ukrainian government privately hold roughly 46,351 BTC. El Salvador’s holdings are currently at 2,381 BTC.

Not including Satoshi, four bitcoin addresses contain more than 100,000 bitcoin each. The four addresses with the most bitcoin belong to Binance, Bitfinex, and another address, whose identity is unknown. These four addresses collectively own more than 663,000 bitcoin. 

Collectively, public companies own more than 253,565 BTC, equal to 1.2% of the total supply. The ten public companies holding the most bitcoin on their balance sheet hold over 238,000 BTC total.

Microstrategy, led by Michael Saylor, holds more bitcoin than any other public company. Microstrategy has acquired more than 131,000 BTC, which represents roughly 0.689% of the total supply. The second-largest bitcoin holding by a public company is Galaxy Digital Holdings, which owns 16,400 BTC. In third place is Tesla, Inc. which holds 10,725 BTC, a 0.051% share of the total supply, after previously selling over 31,000 BTC.

What’s next – at least in the short therm

Glassnode cofounder @Negentropic informed his 54,000 Twitter followers that the best time to buy Bitcoin is when there’s “blood in the streets.”

His comments come in the wake of numerous major bank collapses in the United States, as well as the Fed looking to potentially pause interest rate hikes in the coming months. These are some of the reasons why Glassnode said that it “remains confident” Bitcoin can reach a price of $35,000 in the mid-term.