Now, US spot Bitcoin exchange (exchange traded funds) (ETFs) are almost where they once were with respect to the holdings of Bitcoin’s mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
At the time of writing on December 5, following several historic milestones in Bitcoin’s evolution with US spot BTC ETFs collectively holding more than 1.1 million BTC. Once the US spot Bitcoin ETFs went live in January 2024, the funds acquired a lot of assets.
Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas pointed to a December 6 X (formerly Twitter) post saying data from market watcher Shaun Edmondson showed the achievement. “The mind-blowing part is that the US spot ETFs have just passed Satoshi in total BTC held, with their total now over 1.1 million, more than anyone in the world,” Balchunas wrote.
US Bitcoin ETFs Surpass 1.1 Million BTC Milestone
BTC ETF observer HODL15Capital told me that these combined ETFs are now worth 1,103,965 BTC, more than Nakamoto’s estimated holdings. That makes the available BTC currently around 21,000,000 BTC, meaning that Nakamoto is believed to control 1.1 million BTC, or 5.2 percent of that total supply.
It’s a milestone that brings US BTC ETFs ahead of major entities in the BTC space. For instance, they now have 42 percent more BTC than Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and 63 percent more than MicroStrategy, one of the largest corporate BTC holders, he told CoinDesk.
Some, including Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, speculate long and hard about the identity of Nakamoto, and while some of us have labored mightily over that question, others believe the person who created BTC may no longer exist.
If Nakamoto were alive, he or she “probably would be smiling” bitcoin’s price rise above $100,000, Novogratz said during a December 5 CNBC interview, adding that he believes Nakamoto is not among the living. As the US spot Bitcoin ETFs grow to include more endowments, things are starting to shift in the world of BTC ownership most endowments now own more BTC than any individual or entity.
