The Top Bitcoin Holders in the World

· Voyager Digital: 12,260 BTC

· Tezos Foundation: 24,808 BTC

· Terra Foundation: 42,406.92 BTC

· CoinShares: 69,730 BTC

· Tesla: 43,200 BTC

· Microstrategy: 129,218 BTC

· Block.one: 164,000 BTC


In the world of traditional finance, it’s often discussed what the most valuable companies are. It usually happens when a company crosses an important landmark, like when it’s worth a billion or even a trillion dollars. Discussing a company’s market cap has become the common ground for investment decisions, and the same applies to crypto market caps.

But what able the market cap in crypto? How much do the top companies hold in Bitcoin? In this article, we provide a breakdown of the top Bitcoin holders in the world - and how much crypto in USD they own.

Keep in mind that this list excludes the amount held by companies as part of their services, such as their assets under management (AUM), crypto funds like ETFs, or a trust - which is the case for the Grayscale Trust, popularly known for being the biggest crypto holder in the world with its Bitcoin Trust.


Voyager Digital

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Founded in 1993, Voyager digital is a publicly-traded investment firm founded in Canada which now focuses entirely on providing investments in cryptocurrencies. According to its public records, Voyager owns roughly 12,260 Bitcoin, which at the time of writing amounts to roughly $477 million dollars. One of the few publicly-traded crypto companies in Canada, Voyager filed to go public in June of 2021.


Tezos Foundation

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The foundation behind the Tezos project (XTZ), it is estimated that the Tezos foundation holds roughly 24,808 BTC - approximately $965 million dollars at the time of writing. The reserved Bitcoins are part of its funding treasury to develop Tezos, push the project forward and deal with any costs that might arise from unexpected issues or even to refund investors due to potential malware.

This impressive amount comes after Tezos liquidated a whopping 8,000 BTC back in 2019 and another 8,000 afterwards to invest in the foundation and exchange the crypto for ETH, XTZ and traditional assets such as stocks and bonds.


Terra Foundation

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The next place in the top Bitcoin holders also goes to another crypto foundation, this time Terra - responsible for projects like its crypto LUNA, the UST algorithmic stablecoin and the Anchor Protocol (ANK). Currently, Terra has the largest Bitcoin holding of any crypto project and foundation. After a couple of months of intense acquisitions to strengthen its treasury, the Terra foundation now holds a staggering 42,406.92 BTC - or $1.65 billion dollars.

According to Terra founder Do Kwon, the reserves will mostly be applied to serve as backup funding for the UST algorithmic stablecoin - a form of hedge for the project in case it runs into structural challenges or regulatory crackdown since it was until then only pegged by LUNA and vice versa.


CoinShares

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The financial firm with the world’s first regulated Bitcoin investment fund, founded in 2014, CoinShares has been in the crypto business for nearly eight years focusing on high net worth individuals and institutions. With such time in the business, it’s no wonder that the private company also holds a jaw-breaking amount of Bitcoin for its reserves - 69,730 BTC, or $2.71 billion dollars.


Tesla

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The world-famous electric car company, now worth more than the other top 10 car manufacturers combined, holds the bronze medal of this list. Definitely the most popular Bitcoin holder, Tesla always makes the headlines when it comes to crypto attached to its leader Elon Musk - an avid supporter of Bitcoin and, especially, Dogecoin. Contrary to other companies and foundations on this list, Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings came all at once with a single trade. On February 8th of 2021, Tesla brought the investment world to a halt when it announced that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin - in the form of 43,200 BTC. It was the first and only time that a company worth over $1 trillion dollars did so; not to mention being number 6 on the world rank.


Microstrategy

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There are two types of popularity when it comes to companies that hold Bitcoin; you have mainstream media popularity, which goes to Tesla and Elon Musk, then “crypto mainstream” popularity, and that certainly goes to Microstrategy and its founder Michael Saylor.

Founded in 1989, Microstrategy is a software developer, cloud-based developer and business intelligence firm founded in Virginia. With a yearly revenue of half a billion dollars, most people had never heard of Microstrategy until the company made its first Bitcoin purchase back in 2020. Since then, the corporation has been making several headlines as its founder Michael Saylor goes through an absolute quest to make sure everyone on Earth has Bitcoin on their hands. Don’t believe me? Check out his Twitter profile and you’ll have your evidence right away.

Since 2020, Microstrategy has amassed 129,218 BTC - or $5.03 billion dollars in the biggest cryptocurrency.


Block.one

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This is possibly an unexpected result to this list, as most people would believe that Microstrategy is the top Bitcoin holder in the world. In reality, the top podium goes to Block.one; a blockchain software developer, and tech/finance incubator founded very recently in 2016. According to Bitcoin Treasuries and company reports, Block.one has in its private treasury the massive amount of 164,000 BTC - or $6.38 billion dollars at the time of writing. That accounts for roughly 0.78% of all Bitcoin in circulation!



Author: Gate.io Researcher: Victor Bastos
* This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
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