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Because of Bitcoin’s transparency on its network, it is possible to keep an eye on the metrics around wallets and to see what transactions are going on, or indeed, what wallets are holding. This is a useful tool to determine what, and how, Bitcoin is being used. 

Data from multiple sources has now shown that there are a record high number of Bitcoin wallets that are holding 10 BTC or more, which at today's price, sees these wallets holding over $100,000 - a substantial amount.

According to BitInfoCharts’ Bitcoin Rich List, there are 157,210 addresses holding between 10 and 1,000,000 BTC. Of course, with that measurement, there are far fewer addresses holding figure at the top end of the measurement. In fact, there are only four addresses that are holding 100,000 to 1 million BTC in a single wallet.

The fact that so many wallets are holding this significant amount of money seems to point towards the designation of Bitcoin in people’s minds. Bitcoin has long been viewed as a potential store of value and determined to be digital gold. 

With there being an increase in wallets holding significant amounts of coins, and thus value, this would indicate that a large chunk of the Bitcoin using population is happy to hold onto the asset in the view that it will continue to grow. 

It could be assumed that if this number was decreasing, there would be more of a spending culture around the digital asset and thus it would be determined to be more of a currency than a digital gold. 

Breaking down the distribution.

The Bitcoin Rich List reveals that the holdings of the 10-100 BTC group — split between 140,940 unique addresses — are worth in excess of $46.1 billion. However, what is more telling is that while there are a lot less - 1,942 - addresses holding between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC each, the total value of their holdings is greater than $48.2 billion.

The top four addresses cumulatively hold a total of $5.35 billion, but those addresses are all traced back to centralized exchange wallet addresses, meaning that each reflects assets held in custody for tens of thousands of individual users. 

The top holders of huge sums of Bitcoin are still relatively mysterious. There was news of a Bitcoin Whale shifting $1 billion worth of coins not too long ago, with speculation arising as to who, or what, it was. 

Self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright, is due to pay $5 billion in Bitcoin, which means it could have been him moving coins around. That being said, it could also be the true creator of Bitcoin seeing his coins moved. 

However, another option may be Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, founders of the Gemini crypto exchange, who were the first outwardly known Bitcoin billionaires. 

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