Ordinary investors, not crypto companies or institutional investors, own most of the world’s Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). Individuals hold about 14 million BTC, or approximately two-thirds of the 21 million BTC that will ever exist, according to River’s Bitcoin adoption report for 2026. (River was founded in 2019 to “build the Bitcoin bank of the world.”)
The distribution of the coin’s supply has been on my mind for years now. But I’ve only understood very recently that other people’s misconceptions about who holds the most of it represent a significant buying opportunity. Let’s walk through the logic here.
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Bitcoin’s largest owner probably holds 4.6% of the total
The biggest single holder of Bitcoin is probably its pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, who disappeared in 2011 and whose identity remains unknown.
Many believe that the wallet addresses that are thought to constitute Satoshi’s untouched stash hold 968,000 coins, or 4.6% of all that can exist. An investigation by Cointelegraph in September 2026 found that the estimates of the hoard’s exact size range from just under 900,000 to about 1.2 million BTC. Those coins have never moved, and given Satoshi’s potentially permanent absence, most people, including yours truly, assume that they never will, as to move them would cause widespread panic that they might be sold.
There are also an estimated 1.6 million coins that are permanently “lost,” i.e., inaccessible to their owners. It is with some regret that I report to you that a small quantity of that lost sum was at one point under my control. Regardless, neither that pile nor Satoshi’s are likely to re-enter circulation — I’m certainly never going to find the wallet credentials I was using more than 10 years ago — which has the effect of shrinking the pool of coins available to everyone else who might want to buy them.
Among the businesses that constitute the biggest potential buyers, Strategy has the most, with 848,000 BTC, or about 4% of the total; every other company combined holds about 3.9%.
Take a look at this table: