Bitcoin hit a wild high of $69,000 in November 2021. And despite a healthy rally in the first quarter of this year, its price is still nearly two-thirds lower than it was then. This drop in price made it easier for people to jump on the bitcoin bandwagon or continue to accumulate satoshis faster. According to data from the analytics company Glassnode, there are already more than a million addresses with a balance of more than 1 BTC. The last time the number of addresses with full BTC status increased significantly was at the end of February 2022. At that time, Bitcoin was about halfway through its correction from its all time high.
Holding one whole bitcoin now is equivalent to roughly half of the average US salary. This is what we saw during the unrelenting bull market during the pandemic, a clear reversal of the previous trajectory where the number of addresses containing at least 1 Bitcoin grew. When the price of Bitcoin fell last year, the previous upward trajectory of the growth of the number of these addresses resumed. This pattern might not change in the future, we will see in the upcoming months if the past will repeat itself.
Important to remind that one bitcoin address does not always represent one person. In other words, it does not necessarily mean that 1 BTC is owned by a million people. Some individuals have multiple Bitcoin addresses under their control, and likewise some addresses may belong to institutions or groups of people. The number of 1 million addresses highlights how deeply Bitcoin has established itself in the mainstream sphere in recent years. Despite the inherent decentralization of the Bitcoin network, the distribution of wealth is more concentrated than commonly assumed.
Among nearly 46.5 million addresses with at least some fraction of BTC (but less than one), only 7% of the supply (1.356 million BTC worth $36.4 billion) is distributed
The remaining 93% (18 million BTC, worth $482.7 billion) is stored in one million addresses that now own all of the BTC
Addresses containing more than 1 BTC represent about 2.1% of all non-zero Bitcoin addresses.
However, it should be emphasized that these statistics are somewhat distorted. These usually represent the collective holdings of all their users. For example, CoinGlass data tells us that it is about 1.89 million BTC ($50.7 billion). It can thus be said that it is approximately one in ten bitcoins in circulation. Even distribution across financial systems leads to stability in related asset classes. A smaller number of holders, on the other hand, results in unbalanced buying and selling pressure, causing significant price fluctuations. So more people holding at least one whole bitcoin could mean increased price stability. It can also be seen as the coming of age and maturation of the primary cryptocurrency.
