0.01% of Bitcoin Holders Control 27% of All Coins in Circulation: Study

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According to a new study, less than 1% of the largest Bitcoin (BTC) holders control more than a quarter of all BTC in circulation.

The National Bureau of Economic Research, a private US nonprofit research organization, published a study claiming that 10,000 Bitcoin accounts, or 0.01% of all BTC holders, have 5 million BTC, or 27%. of the 18.9 million coins in circulation.

The amount of BTC held by the “1%” is equivalent to roughly $ 232 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on December 20.

Conducted by finance professors Antoinette Schoar at MIT Sloan School of Management and Igor Makarov at London School of Economics, the study aims to demonstrate that Bitcoin is not as decentralized as one might think.

“Despite the fact that it’s been around for 14 years and the hype it has generated, it’s still a very concentrated ecosystem,” said Schoar.

According to the WSJ report, the best hodlers control a greater share of BTC than the highest dollar US households. Citing data from the US Federal Reserve, the report notes that the richest 1% of US households hold about a third of all wealth.

The new report may seem alarming to the crypto community, as key Bitcoin advocates have promoted decentralization as one of the biggest tenets of the Bitcoin network.

Related: Fish Food? Data shows retail investors buy Bitcoin, whales sell

According to the founder of Quantum Economics, Mati Greenspan, much of the BTC supply in circulation is controlled by Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin. “Satoshi coins alone are over 5%,” Greenspan told Cointelegraph, adding:

“Over time, the ownership of Bitcoin is designed to be more distributed. For Fiat, the reverse tends to happen.

It should be noted that much of the circulating supply of BTC is apparently not controlled by anyone and is likely to be lost forever. According to crypto-insurance firm Coincover, around 4 million BTC is out of circulation due to loss of access.

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