There are countless Bitcoin holders in the world, but none of their possessions quite match these individuals. Who are they?

Around a decade ago, Bitcoin owners carried out thousands of BTC for various purposes, such as online betting, online payment, even purchasing 2 Papa John's pizzas with 10,000 BTC. No one thought that the value of this first cryptocurrency would soar up to tens of thousands of dollars in the future. And so, those who hold their assets from the very beginning naturally become crypto big shots.

who holds the most bitcoin

The decision to hodl Bitcoin, coupled with a strategy to earn more cryptocurrencies, has proven to be the best decision to make a good deal of money. Therefore, it is not surprising that people are now shifting to cryptocurrencies. With Bitcoin being such a popular investment, you may be wondering: who owns the most Bitcoins?

 

1. Satoshi Nakamoto

You could say Satoshi Nakamoto is similar to a ghost since no one knows who they are. The Bitcoin creator first introduced Bitcoin in 2008 with his whitepaper entitled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Money System. Helped by fellow cryptographers, this idea was finally delivered and has grown to completely change the traditional finance system.

Satoshi was also the first Bitcoin miner. Therefore, they too were the first to scrape Bitcoin units en masse. In the first seven months of Bitcoin's existence, Satoshi managed to mine as much as 1.1 million Bitcoins.

Unlike current Bitcoin miners, Satoshi does not share the coins with thousands of other mining pool users. So, when calculated by current parameters, Satoshi's Bitcoin fortune is already worth more than $30 billion which remains untouched to this day.

Many individuals have come forward to the media claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, but no one has been able to confirm it with proof. Since Satoshi has disappeared anonymously, there is a possibility that the one million BTC savings will never be cashed out.

 

2. Barry Silbert

Barry Silbert is the best example of an investor who does not only hodl but also adds money to his Bitcoin collection through strategic investments. Silbert, a venture capitalist and founder of the Digital Currency Group, was an early proponent of Bitcoin. He earned 48,000 Bitcoins from an auction held by the US Marshals Service in 2014.

At that time, the US government confiscated a lot of Bitcoins on the illegal online marketplace Silk Road. Bitcoin was still worth $350 at that time, so Silbert's deposits have now jumped about sixteenfold, from about $16.8 million to $268.8 million.

barry silbert

Through DGC, the 43-year-old tycoon has invested in more than 100 startups and Bitcoin-related companies, one of which is the popular site CoinDesk. Aside from being a comprehensive Bitcoin news source, CoinDesk is also the organizer of the annual Bitcoin industry conference, Consensus.

He too built Grayscale Investments, a New York-based investment service that allows investors to gain exposure in the Bitcoin market through Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares. Although Forbes reported that Silbert's net worth is $1.6 billion in 2021, how much Bitcoin he holds remains a mystery.

 

3. Michael Saylor

Michael Saylor is a chief executive of MicroStrategy, a business intelligence firm in the US. He earned the title "Best Bitcoin Buyer" after making a purchase of Bitcoin in 2020 and eventually replaced more than 80% of his company's cash reserves with cryptocurrencies. It's worth noting that his first Bitcoin purchase of $250 million took place in August 2020 when the world was struggling with the Coronavirus pandemic.

Despite people's doubts about his decision, Saylor believes that Bitcoin is a safe haven asset that investors will be looking for during global economic turmoil. So far, the company holds 105,085 BTC worth $3.44 billion. Saylor himself admitted that he held 17,732 Bitcoins worth $582.9 million.

michael saylor

The 56-year old entrepreneur reported his personal Bitcoin stash of $866 million. He never plans to sell it as he is a true hodler. Saylor believes the bitcoin price could reach $6 million per coin in the future, a 12,000% increase from current levels, noting that it is unstoppable and soon will replace gold.

 

4. Micree Zhan and Wu Jihan

As Co-founders and co-CEOs of Bitmain, the world's largest computer chip company for cryptocurrency mining, Micree Zhan and Wu Jihan are reported to have $3.2 billion and $1.8 billion worth of Bitcoin, respectively.

Zhan and Jihan have come out at the forefront of Bitcoin mining after dominating the manufacture and distribution of Bitcoin minting machines as well as owning Antpool, one of the biggest Bitcoin mining farms.

Antpool is an open access mining pool that supports ten cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC). The pool allows global miners to unite their computing hardware to mine cryptocurrencies and lets pools accumulate newly minted Bitcoins. Since Antpool mines most of the Bitcoin blocks, this shapes Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan to become very influential in the Bitcoin community.

Unfortunately, Zhan was kicked out of Bitmain in October 2019 after a long-running power struggle with Wu and other executives. Since then, Zhan has bought shares from other shareholders to reclaim his role as CEO. According to Forbes, Zhan's net worth is estimated at $3.2 billion.

 

5. Changpeng Zhao

Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ in the crypto space, is the founder and chief executive of Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world by trading volume. His magnificent career in the crypto industry began in Shanghai. In 2013, BTC China CEO Bobby Lee and investor Ron Cao advised Zhao to transfer 10% of his assets into Bitcoin. After spending some time studying it, Zhao finally dared to take the risk of selling his apartment to buy Bitcoin.

changpeng zhao

In 2017, Zhao launched Binance after raising $15 million in an Initial Coin Offering. Not too long after that, he joined the ranks of crypto conglomerates after successfully opening many businesses under the Binance brand, including NFT Marketplace, Smart Chain Binance, charitable organizations, and many others.

Binance's immense success has made Zhao one of the most influential figures in the crypto community. At the same time, his income has increased to  $1.9 billion according to a Forbes report in June last year.

Even if he never discloses how much Bitcoin he has, Zhao's wealth is enormous, considering how much the number of cryptocurrencies he and his companies keep, especially following Binance Coin's 1,300% gain in 2021. According to Bloomberg, Zhao is the largest crypto billionaire and the richest person in Asia with a net worth of $96 billion.

 

EndNote

Despite the Corona pandemic that devastated economies around the world, the cryptocurrency market continues to grow and stand firm since 2020. Evidently, as the oldest digital asset, Bitcoin managed to record a market capitalization of over $800 billion, making it one of the most successful digital currencies ever created.

See also: Top 10 Cryptocurrencies by Market Cap

The skyrocketing price of Bitcoin has certainly created a batch of millionaires and billionaires, particularly those who have invested in Bitcoin since the very beginning when it was still worth hundreds of Dollars. They don't just stop as hodlers, since they continue investing in some other ways to make money.

However, no matter how rich those billionaires are, they still can't beat Satoshi Nakamoto, the first Bitcoin miner to have gathered 22,000 blocks in and received more than one million BTC. So it's not surprising that we put Satoshi in the first place because he is indeed estimated to be the largest Bitcoin holder to date.

Investing in Bitcoin today may be daunting since the price has jumped so far that many consider Bitcoin's bull run to be exhausted soon. However, others still believe that Bitcoin's rising price is not done yet. Which one will be true? Nobody knows exactly as there are many unpredictable things in the market to account for. So, for retail traders, don't be hasty to invest in Bitcoin.