Over 11 Million Bitcoins Have Unknown Owners

Approximately 11.1 million BTC, about 55% of the 20.1 million mined, are held in addresses that Galaxy Research cannot link to an exchange, fund, government, or other known entity, according to the company's October data snapshot. These coins may belong to private individuals, unidentified institutions, or holders who have lost access.

Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, sees this as evidence of the prevalence of self-custody: people maintain control over their keys despite the growth of exchanges, funds, and custodians. "More than half of the total BTC supply is held in addresses without known attribution—despite all the institutionalization and centralized ownership over the years, a significant amount of bitcoin (possibly even the majority) is still held by individuals in self-custody," he wrote on X.

Bitcoin-focused Xapo Bank responded: the large number of coins in anonymous wallets is a sign that retail has been in this market for over a decade. "Bitcoin is for the people, and people 'can be their own banks.' Retail has been here for over ten years. Everyone else is still catching up."

A bitcoin address is similar to an account number in a public ledger: you can see how many coins there are, but not the owner. Galaxy matches addresses with names, tracking wallets of exchanges, funds, and large holders.

Important clarification

All 55% do not necessarily belong to private individuals. There may be lost coins in wallets whose owners forgot the keys or passed away. Some were mined in the early years by miners not associated with the Patoshi Pattern—a set of the earliest blocks linked to Satoshi Nakamoto. Some may belong to unidentified institutions: funds, companies, and OTC desks conducting large transactions off-exchange. Some are in custodial schemes distributing coins across multiple addresses.

The remaining 45% have names: exchanges, ETFs led by BlackRock, the US government, and the largest holder—"Satoshi Nakamoto (Patoshi Pattern)" with 1,123,658 BTC. But despite all the headlines about ETFs, the largest chunk of bitcoin is the one that no one can name.