Ethereum News Today: One Burn Address and 9 More Hold 62% of Shiba Inu's Supply—Who Really Controls SHIB?

The Shiba Inu (SHIB) token continues to attract attention due to the highly concentrated ownership structure of its supply, with recent data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment highlighting that the top 10 addresses control 62.3% of the total SHIB supply. This represents approximately 623 trillion tokens out of the original 1 quadrillion SHIB tokens created at launch [1]. The level of concentration surpasses that of other major Ethereum-based tokens such as Uniswap (UNI) and Ethereum (ETH), which have top 10 ownership percentages of 52.2% and 51%, respectively [2].

Etherscan data provides a breakdown of the top 10 SHIB holders. The largest is the official burn address, 0xdEA…42069, which holds 410.43 trillion SHIB—nearly 41% of the total supply. This address became the primary burn wallet for SHIB after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin transferred over 410 trillion tokens to it in 2021 [1]. The second-largest holder remains unidentified, but it holds approximately 53.37 trillion SHIB—5.33% of the supply—likely associated with a smart contract or decentralized exchange [3].

Following this, major crypto exchanges dominate the list. Robinhood, Binance Hot Wallet 20, Crypto.com, and Binance 28 hold 39.27 trillion (3.92%), 30.71 trillion (3.07%), 29.83 trillion (2.98%), and 19.51 trillion (1.95%) SHIB, respectively [1]. The seventh-largest holder is an unknown entity with 12.04 trillion SHIB, or 1.2% of the supply, while the eighth and ninth positions are also held by Robinhood and Binance accounts with 11.41 trillion and 9.04 trillion SHIB, respectively [2]. The tenth-largest wallet holds approximately 7.65 trillion SHIB, or 0.76% of the total supply [3].

The high degree of concentration raises concerns about potential liquidity risks, particularly if a large sell-off were to occur. However, the fact that the largest holder is a null (burn) address and that much of the remaining supply is held in centralized exchanges mitigates the likelihood of a sudden and destabilizing market move [1]. Santiment’s analysis also notes that SHIB’s ownership concentration is significantly higher than that of stablecoins like USDC and DAI, which are below 30% for their top 10 holders [2].

While such ownership patterns are not uncommon in the cryptocurrency space, they do highlight potential vulnerabilities, particularly for Proof-of-Stake (PoS) chains like Ethereum. In PoS systems, validators with large stakes have a greater chance of being selected to add new blocks, increasing the risk of centralization if a single entity controls a large portion of the supply. In the case of SHIB, while the concentration exists, the practical implications of such control remain limited by the nature of the burn address and the involvement of exchanges [3].

Source:

[1] Santiment shows Shiba Inu Top 10 Addresses Hold Over 62 of SHIB Supply (https://thecryptobasic.com/2025/09/03/santiment-shows-shiba-inu-top-10-addresses-hold-over-62-of-shib-supply/)

[2] Just 10 Wallets Control Majority Of Ethereum Supply (https://bitcoinist.com/10-wallets-majority-ethereum-supply-20-tokens/)

[3] Shiba Inu's Top 10 Wallets Hold Over 60% of Supply (https://cryptorank.io/news/feed/5139e-shiba-inus-top-10-wallets-hold-over-60-of-supply)