Bitcoin’s substantial appreciation in price, to around $69,000 in November 2021 and a peak market capitalization of $1.3 trillion, has consequently produced several Bitcoin millionaires and other affluent holders along the way. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the people, companies and wallets which have become crypto whales and investigate the amounts of Bitcoin they hold, based on on-chain data and their own public announcements. Bitcoin key people While the above features explain Bitcoin's rising value, it doesn't mean there aren't centralization risks. Large BTC holders (aka whales) have an outsized influence on the crypto market. Due to the pseudonymity of crypto wallets, Bitcoin whales can collude and manipulate the crypto’s spot price.
Read more: Bitcoin Resurges to $43K as BlackRock’s BTC ETF Competes with Grayscale’s GBTC Volume Subscribe to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Due to Bitcoin’s pseudonymous nature, it is hard to determine the exact number of Bitcoin millionaires. According to BitInfoCharts, there are currently 100,034 addresses holding Bitcoin valued at $1 million or more. However, that figure is not conclusive since a single individual or organization can control multiple addresses, and one address may belong to more than one individual.