Key Takeaways
- • Galaxy Research estimates about 11.1 million BTC, or 55% of the roughly 20.1 million bitcoin mined, sits in addresses that cannot be linked to any known owner, according to its October ownership snapshot.
- • Galaxy's head of research, Alex Thorn, said the finding points to persistent self-custody, with individuals holding their own private keys despite institutional adoption and spot ETF inflows.
- • The remaining 45% of mined supply, about 9.0 million BTC, is attributed to identifiable holders including exchanges, ETFs such as BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT, about 814,263 BTC as of October 22), the U.S. government, and 1,123,658 BTC linked to the Patoshi pattern.
- • The unattributed total may include lost coins, early-mined bitcoin, and unidentified institutional wallets; Galaxy has not provided a verified breakdown.
- • The concentration of unattributed supply limits how precisely the market can measure bitcoin actually available to trade, and may imply a meaningful portion of supply will never move.
Summary
Galaxy Research, the research arm of Galaxy Digital (GLXY), estimates that roughly 11.1 million bitcoin, or about 55% of the roughly 20.1 million coins mined, was unattributed in its October ownership snapshot. The coins cannot be connected to an exchange, fund, government or other entity whose holdings can be verified through public records. The finding comes despite years of institutional buying and the arrival of spot exchange-traded funds.
Galaxy's head of research, Alex Thorn, said the result points to the persistence of self-custody, in which holders keep their own private keys rather than leaving coins with an exchange or fund. In an October post on X, Thorn wrote that "still a ton of bitcoin (maybe even most) is held by individuals in self-custody." Xapo Bank responded that the concentration of coins in unnamed wallets shows retail investors entered the market long before most of the financial industry did.
Galaxy attributes the remaining 45% of mined supply, about 9.0 million BTC, to identifiable owners or groups. That slice includes major cryptocurrency exchanges, the U.S. government, and a set of 1,123,658 BTC (about 5.6% of mined supply) tied to the Patoshi mining pattern, which researchers link to bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. This classification is based on historical mining patterns rather than confirmation of the miner's real-world identity. Separately, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust held about 814,263 BTC as of October 22, according to recent ETF holdings data, and tracked investment products held 1,284,312 BTC combined.
Galaxy cautions that the 55% figure does not mean all unattributed coins are held by long-term individual savers. Part may be inaccessible bitcoin, including wallets whose owners lost keys or died without passing on recovery instructions. Other coins may have been mined by early miners other than the Patoshi operator, or may belong to funds, companies or over-the-counter desks not yet identified. Galaxy's own tracking illustrates the difficulty: in August, it followed six dormant wallets that moved 553.59 BTC (about $40.15 million at the time) after long dormancy, but could not establish who controlled most of the addresses.
The findings also bear on custody debates. Casa chief security officer Jameson Lopp, in an October 22 letter, urged holders not to give up personal custody after hardware wallet compromises and thefts, recommending multisignature wallets and split private keys, and noting that self-custody requires succession planning. Lopp added that ETF investors gain bitcoin price exposure without controlling the underlying asset. Banks are also expanding custody services: Citigroup plans to introduce bitcoin custody before the end of 2026, BNY Mellon already serves ETF issuers, and Coinbase Custody remains a major provider for U.S. spot funds.
For investors, the snapshot suggests bitcoin's ownership base is more dispersed than ETF and corporate adoption headlines imply. A majority of supply sits outside the disclosure and custody arrangements that make institutional positions countable, limiting precise measurement of tradable supply. Galaxy's data does not verify how much of the unattributed total is lost versus actively held.
Galaxy's head of research, Alex Thorn, said the result points to the persistence of self-custody, in which holders keep their own private keys rather than leaving coins with an exchange or fund. In an October post on X, Thorn wrote that "still a ton of bitcoin (maybe even most) is held by individuals in self-custody." Xapo Bank responded that the concentration of coins in unnamed wallets shows retail investors entered the market long before most of the financial industry did.
Galaxy attributes the remaining 45% of mined supply, about 9.0 million BTC, to identifiable owners or groups. That slice includes major cryptocurrency exchanges, the U.S. government, and a set of 1,123,658 BTC (about 5.6% of mined supply) tied to the Patoshi mining pattern, which researchers link to bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. This classification is based on historical mining patterns rather than confirmation of the miner's real-world identity. Separately, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust held about 814,263 BTC as of October 22, according to recent ETF holdings data, and tracked investment products held 1,284,312 BTC combined.
Galaxy cautions that the 55% figure does not mean all unattributed coins are held by long-term individual savers. Part may be inaccessible bitcoin, including wallets whose owners lost keys or died without passing on recovery instructions. Other coins may have been mined by early miners other than the Patoshi operator, or may belong to funds, companies or over-the-counter desks not yet identified. Galaxy's own tracking illustrates the difficulty: in August, it followed six dormant wallets that moved 553.59 BTC (about $40.15 million at the time) after long dormancy, but could not establish who controlled most of the addresses.
The findings also bear on custody debates. Casa chief security officer Jameson Lopp, in an October 22 letter, urged holders not to give up personal custody after hardware wallet compromises and thefts, recommending multisignature wallets and split private keys, and noting that self-custody requires succession planning. Lopp added that ETF investors gain bitcoin price exposure without controlling the underlying asset. Banks are also expanding custody services: Citigroup plans to introduce bitcoin custody before the end of 2026, BNY Mellon already serves ETF issuers, and Coinbase Custody remains a major provider for U.S. spot funds.
For investors, the snapshot suggests bitcoin's ownership base is more dispersed than ETF and corporate adoption headlines imply. A majority of supply sits outside the disclosure and custody arrangements that make institutional positions countable, limiting precise measurement of tradable supply. Galaxy's data does not verify how much of the unattributed total is lost versus actively held.
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