US Spot Bitcoin ETFs Become Second-Largest Holder Of BTC Behind Satoshi

Since their approval in January 2024, Spot Bitcoin ETFs have been steadily gaining traction in the United States, with the issuers buying hundreds of thousands of BTC as their popularity spread. This has led to a large stash of BTC by these issuers as BlackRock leads the charge. Given their buying spree so far, the number of BTC being held by the Spot Bitcoin ETFs has been rising and is almost at the 1 million mark,

Spot Bitcoin ETFs Now Hold 924,768 BTC

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission approved a total of 12 Spot Bitcoin ETFs for trading back in January 2024. Now, only eight months later, these ETFs have managed to acquire more than 4% of the total Bitcoin supply. Combined, this makes the Spot Bitcoin ETFs some of the largest BTC holders.

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So far, the BlackRock IBIT has been one of the largest buyers of BTC, surpassing even Grayscale’s GBTC, which had a 600,000 BTC head start. Currently, Grayscale holds more than 350,000 BTC, making the firm a top Bitcoin holder.

Grayscale is still in second place when it comes to the number of BTC held. However, the Bitcoin fund has recorded more outflows than inflows since January, losing more than half of its stash before the Spot Bitcoin ETF approvals. Now, Grayscale holds less than 250,000 BTC after losing more than $20 billion to other Spot Bitcoin ETFs due to their lower fees.

Other Spot Bitcoin ETFs such as the Fidelity FBTC and the Ark Invest/21Shares ARKB has reached almost 50,000 BTC. So far, the funds have been able to garner 924,768 BTC, putting their total holdings very close to the 1 million BTC milestone. In total, the Spot Bitcoin ETFs now boast 4.685 of the total Bitcoin supply.

Top Addresses With Largest Holdings

The top Bitcoin wallet with the largest BTC holdings still remains the Satoshi Nakamoto wallet with 1.1 million BTC in it. However, this wallet has been long dormant, and often left out of the top Bitcoin wallets list due to its inactivity.

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According to the BitInfoCharts website, topping the Bitcoin rich list is the Binance old wallet with 248,598 BTC worth over $16.3 billion. Next is the Bitfinex Hack Recovery wallet with 94,643 BTC, with $6.2 billion. The Mt Gox Hack wallet holds 79,957 BTC for the third-largest at $5.2 billion.

The wallet holding the BTC confiscated from the Silk Road bust with 69,370 BTC is in fourth position worth $4.56 billion, and the Binance BTCB Reserve wallet has 68,200 BTC in it, worth $4.49 billion.

Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com