Who controls Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is not controlled by any single group or person. Instead, it is governed by multiple stakeholders — including developers, miners, and users. Developers write the code that makes Bitcoin run; miners validate transactions; and users put the software to work by trading, transacting, holding, and more.
Who Owns the Most Bitcoins? Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, is believed to own the most bitcoins, with estimates suggesting over 1 million BTC mined in the early days of the network.
So, who are the top holders of BTC? According to the Bitcoin research and analysis firm River Intelligence, Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator behind Bitcoin, is listed as the top BTC holder as of 2024. The company notes that Satoshi Nakamoto holds about 1.1m BTC tokens in about 22,000 different addresses.
The Securities and Exchange Commission regulates assets it determines to be securities. It doesn't yet regulate Bitcoin, but it is regulating investments or derivatives related to Bitcoin.
As a decentralized system, bitcoin operates without a central authority or single administrator, so that anyone can create a new bitcoin address and transact without needing any approval. This is accomplished through a specialized distributed ledger called a blockchain that records bitcoin transactions.
As of March 2023, the top 1% of Bitcoin addresses hold over 90% of the total Bitcoin supply, according to Bitinfocharts.
Today, roughly 1 million wallet addresses have more than 1 bitcoin. Think about that for a moment — only 1 million out of the nearly 8 billion people on Earth own at least one full bitcoin. That works out to be only about 1 in every 8,000 people!
How Many Bitcoins Have Been Mined as of the First-Half 2022? The majority of bitcoins have already been mined. As of June 2022, 19.07 million bitcoins were mined, leaving only 1.93 million left to be mined.
| Rank | Company | Estimated Value as of Feb 22, 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MicroStrategy | $9.1B |
| 2 | Galaxy Digital | $912.1M |
| 3 | Marathon Digital | $714.1M |
| 4 | Tesla | $546.7M |
Can I be taxed on bitcoin?
The IRS treats cryptocurrencies as property for tax purposes, which means: You pay taxes on cryptocurrency if you sell or use your crypto in a transaction, and it is worth more than it was when you purchased it. This is because you trigger capital gains or losses if its market value has changed.
'Bitcoin will be increasingly important'
Bitcoin will be increasingly important as means of payment and an alternative asset, there is no doubt about that, but it is unlikely to displace the US dollar as the world's reserve currency.
Bitcoin is a risky investment with high volatility, and generally should be considered only if you have a high risk tolerance, are in a strong financial position already and can afford to lose some or all of your investment.
In terms of what the Bible says about it, obviously there aren't any specific scriptures about cryptocurrency.
How Does Bitcoin Make Money? Miners on the Bitcoin network can be rewarded by successfully opening blocks. Bitcoins are exchangeable for fiat currency via cryptocurrency exchanges. Investors and speculators can make money from trading bitcoins.
Instead, Bitcoin's price is determined based on supply and demand. Bitcoin has a supply cap where no more than 21 million BTC will ever exist. Bitcoin's price increases when demand exceeds supply and decreases when demand falls.
In 2017, Taihuttu, his wife, and three daughters liquidated all they owned, trading a 2,500-square-foot house and virtually all their earthly possessions for bitcoin and a life on the road. This was back when the price of bitcoin was around $900. Bitcoin is currently trading around $19,700.
Prominent figures associated with substantial cryptocurrency wealth include individuals such as Changpeng Zhao (founder of Binance), Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (founders of Gemini), and Chris Larsen (co-founder of Ripple). Their fortunes are tied to successful ventures in the crypto space.
Bitcoin is regarded as the first decentralized cryptocurrency using blockchain technology to facilitate payments and digital transactions.
There are 88,200 crypto millionaires worldwide. 40,500 of these millionaires have amassed their fortune in Bitcoin (BTC). The number of global crypto owners reached 580 million by the end of 2023, according to Crypto.com.
Where do most people hold Bitcoin?
As of November 6th 2023, each of the top five wallet addresses by Bitcoin holdings are either crypto exchanges or government entities, as outlined in the chart below. Note: Often exchanges hold multiple wallets/addresses which is why Binance appears here multiple times. Source: Bitinfocharts, Grayscale Investments.
A recent survey conducted by bitcoin financial services firm Unchained found that 86 million Americans — 26% of the U.S. population — owns bitcoin. But the reality is that, even if they have heard of "crypto," the average investor in the U.S. and beyond knows very little about this nascent asset class.
However, once the maximum supply of 21 million bitcoins is reached, these block rewards will cease. Miners will then solely rely on transaction fees as their compensation for validating transactions and securing the network.
The shortest amount of time it can take to mine at least 1 bitcoin is about 10 minutes. However, the actual time it can take you depends on several factors such as the hashing power of your mining hardware, the overall network hash rate, and the Bitcoin mining difficulty.
| Year | Minimum Price | Average Price |
|---|---|---|
| 2028 | $359,657.03 | $369,638.03 |
| 2029 | $517,096.29 | $531,882.81 |
| 2030 | $746,322.36 | $772,916.70 |
| 2031 | $1,103,061.68 | $1,133,978.59 |
