More Than Half of Bitcoin Supply Sits in Unidentified Wallets, Galaxy Research Data Shows

About 11.1 million BTC, roughly 55% of the 20.1 million coins mined so far, sits in addresses that Galaxy Research could not link to any exchange, fund, government or other known holder in its October snapshot. Those coins could belong to individuals, institutions the firm has not identified, or owners who can no longer reach their keys. Galaxy’s head of research, Alex Thorn, said on X that the figure suggests a huge amount of bitcoin, maybe even most of it, remains in self-custody despite years of institutional growth. Self-custody simply means holding your own keys instead of leaving coins with an exchange or fund.

Retail Investors and Self-Custody Reaction

Xapo Bank answered Thorn’s post by saying the number shows retail investors have been in bitcoin for over a decade while everyone else is still catching up. Bitcoin is often described as a market that grew from the bottom up, with retail traders arriving first and institutions following later.

Why the Unnamed 55% Comes With a Caveat

The unattributed pile does not necessarily belong to long term individual holders. It may include coins that are probably lost, such as wallets whose owners forgot their keys or died. Some were mined in the early years by miners other than the one behind the Patoshi pattern, a set of early blocks linked to a single miner, widely thought to be Satoshi Nakamoto. Other coins could belong to funds, companies or OTC desks, or sit in custody setups that spread holdings across many addresses and make tracing harder.

Who Holds the Other 45% of Bitcoin

The remaining 45% has names attached, including exchanges, BlackRock led ETFs, the US government and the biggest single holder, the Patoshi pattern miner, at 1,123,658 BTC. Even with all the ETF headlines, the largest share of bitcoin is still held by owners nobody can name.