Institutional Bitcoin Holdings Surge 924% Over Decade

Centralized Bitcoin (BTC) treasuries have accumulated a substantial portion of the total circulating supply, holding approximately 30.9% of all Bitcoins in circulation. This significant concentration is spread across 216 entities, including governments, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), public and private companies, centralized exchanges, and DeFi contracts. This trend indicates a growing institutional maturity and adoption within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The total amount of BTC held by major institutional and custodial entities has surged to 6,145,207 BTC, marking a 924% increase over the past decade. This rapid growth underscores how centralized players have steadily accumulated a larger share of the network’s supply, reshaping Bitcoin’s ownership structure in favor of institutional dominance.

According to a joint report, just three entities dominate Bitcoin adoption across most institutional categories, holding between 65% and 90% of total BTC holdings. This concentration reflects how early entrants shaped the strategic direction and legitimacy of Bitcoin within institutional finance. Private company holdings, on the other hand, are more evenly distributed, indicating a broader base of adoption at that level. While such dominance may decrease as institutional participation expands, the early leaders continue to play a central role in driving capital inflows and positioning Bitcoin as a credible macro asset in traditional finance.

Custody has slowly shifted away from centralized exchanges toward ETFs, funds, and DeFi protocols, which now serve as primary gateways for spot market access. While balances on centralized exchanges have declined over the past two years, this does not signal a tightening supply. Instead, most of that Bitcoin has moved into custodial vehicles like US spot ETFs. The combined holdings of these spot custodians have remained relatively stable and range between 3.9 million and 4.2 million BTC since June 2021. This is indicative of a reallocation rather than a reduction in circulating supply.

Despite the stability in total holdings, these custodians exert significant influence on price action, driven by their sensitivity to market shifts. Monthly inflows and outflows can swing dramatically, by as much as $10 billion, which makes these entities key players in BTC’s short-term trajectory, even as the overall structure of the spot market becomes more institutionalized and regulated.

Government-held Bitcoin reserves have grown significantly, particularly in the US, China, the U.K., and Germany, where most acquisitions come through legal enforcement rather than market purchases. The US stands out with more than 200,000 BTC, largely sourced from major law enforcement seizures. These include 69,369 BTC taken from the Silk Road case in November 2027 and 94,643 BTC recovered from the Bitfinex hack in February 2022. After a brief decline, a portion of the US government’s remaining balance was formally converted into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) following an executive order by President Donald Trump on March 6th. In the UK, Bitcoin has been seized by the National Crime Agency through operations targeting cybercriminals. China, after banning crypto activities, confiscated over 194,000 BTC in November 2020 in its crackdown on the PlusToken Ponzi scheme. Germany also accumulated Bitcoin through criminal investigations, but officially liquidated all its holdings by April 29th. These sovereign holdings form a unique category in the crypto ecosystem: largely dormant, yet capable of influencing markets if moved.