How many owns bitcoin?

[Furball808]

** This is just an estimate. With how private owning bitcoin is, we can't expect accurate numbers representing the number of people who own bitcoin.

As of 2026, an estimated 480 to 500 million people worldwide own Bitcoin in some form. However, less than 1 million wallets hold at least 1 full BTC, showing how scarce it has become to own one whole Bitcoin.

Half a billion people now hold some amount of bitcoin. I looked for this statistic because I was wondering how much more people do not hold bitcoin and how much realistically can still buy in the future. As someone who is so well integrated to the crypto industry, it is hard to imagine how much more people are ignorant about bitcoin. Despite the big number of people holding bitcoin, there are still only a few who have 1 btc or more.

In 2026, approximately 950,000 wallet addresses hold 1 BTC or more, less than 0.2% of all Bitcoin addresses.

If you own even 0.1 bitcoin, you are already in the top 10% of bitcoin. Even though bitcoin is so well known now and so accessible, bitcoin remains to be an asset that is hard to acquire lots of. So, if you needed some motivation to be part of that 10% this post could be it

Reference:
https://www.bleap.finance/blog/how-many-people-own-bitcoin

[Fiatless]

Poverty and lack of knowledge are some of the reasons why many people don't own one or more Bitcoins. Due to the rate of inflation, unemployment, conflicts and other factors, the rate of poverty is increasing. More people are now interested in survival and not investment. The earnings of some people are not enough to cover their expenses on basic needs. So they don't have extra funds to buy Bitcoin. Some people are rich but they don't have knowledge about Bitcoin or they don't have an interest. I think this might also be the case with Gold.

[Akbarkoe]

Poverty and lack of knowledge are some of the reasons why many people don't own one or more Bitcoins. Due to the rate of inflation, unemployment, conflicts and other factors, the rate of poverty is increasing. More people are now interested in survival and not investment. The earnings of some people are not enough to cover their expenses on basic needs. So they don't have extra funds to buy Bitcoin. Some people are rich but they don't have knowledge about Bitcoin or they don't have an interest. I think this might also be the case with Gold.

The economic and knowledge factors do affect very influential in the number of bitcoin adoption from the data that I just read ^{Journal Shubam Singh} currently 9.9% of global crypto adoption only this includes all types of crypto in the market, this can also be concluded that people who already know Bitcoin and know bitcoin also they don't have bitcoin in their wallet, but if we talk about gold almost the average person has it, especially women have at least a few grams of gold in each house, we can't compare it to gold because Bitcoin's popularity has not gone that far to reach it.

[Yamane_Keto]

Half a billion people now hold some amount of bitcoin. I looked for this statistic because I was wondering how much more people do not hold bitcoin and how much realistically can still buy in the future. As someone who is so well integrated to the crypto industry, it is hard to imagine how much more people are ignorant about bitcoin. Despite the big number of people holding bitcoin, there are still only a few who have 1 btc or more.

The statistics may not be accurate because Bitcoin is held off-network via ETFs or exchanges, or a new address is created each time a Bitcoin deposit is accepted. relying on the number of addresses alone may not be correct.

[Cryptomultiplier]

Statistics gotten from wallet holders may not be accurate because some wallets are empty or forgotten or belong to dead owners.
However, I see more adoption as at 2026 as compared to before and the case for large institutional holders is one that is unignored and can't be quantified to individual holders.

Some know about Bitcoin but don't hold or know how to invest in it unless they receive gifts in form or Bitcoin and thus have to learn on the spot how to receive it via a wallet and keep it safe.

[legiteum]

** This is just an estimate. With how private owning bitcoin is, we can't expect accurate numbers representing the number of people who own bitcoin.

As of 2026, an estimated 480 to 500 million people worldwide own Bitcoin in some form. However, less than 1 million wallets hold at least 1 full BTC, showing how scarce it has become to own one whole Bitcoin.

BS

WALLETS != PEOPLE

One physical person can own two wallets or 10 wallets or 100 million wallets. Wallet addresses come and go.

The only way to accurately get these stats would be to go to brokers like Robinhood or CoinBase, who have records of real individual humans and ask them to tell you how many of their customer hold some Bitcoin.

And I suspect that at least 90% of the individuals who do "own" (as in, have made a bet on) Bitcoin own it only in the sense of having clicked on a button that says, "Bitcoin" in their investment app. I suspect the actual number of individuals who physically control self-custody wallets is relatively small.

But surely the numbers are in the millions, even if they aren't a large slice of all humans. In that case it's worth underscoring Bitcoin's utter failure to be used as a practical means of transfer and payment. With that sort of wide adoption, it should be accepted absolutely everywhere, but it's not. We're still reading stories like, "hey did you hear that there's now another vendor that now accepts Bitcoin?" like we're counting them one by one. That's because Bitcoin was never meant to be a mainstream currency and technically cannot scale beyond even a tiny fraction of the world's transaction needs.

[Key_plays2014]

That’s actually pretty crazy when you think about it.  

But yeah, I’d take those numbers with a grain of salt. One person can have multiple wallets, and exchanges hold big amounts in single addresses too. So it’s hard to know how many actual individuals are behind it.

Still, less than a million wallets with 1 BTC or more really puts things into perspective. Makes owning even a fraction feel different.

[pooya87]

This silly site is just referencing some chain-analysis companies without saying how they conducted this count. And considering how these same companies have a silly concept like "taint" that flags coins that doesn't even fit their silly definition, I can say their numbers is not accurate or reliable.

In 2026, approximately 950,000 wallet addresses hold 1 BTC or more, less than 0.2% of all Bitcoin addresses.

There is no such thing as "wallet addresses" we either have wallets or addresses. One wallet may contain multiple addresses that hold less than 1BTC each with the sum being higher than 1BTC.
Which is another reason why their estimated number is unreliable.

[uneng]

Those are wealthy investors or early Bitcoin adopters who joined the market when BTC was still cheap, although they must have forgotten their passwords, so they are unable to access funds to sell it for profit. For average investors now it's hard to accumulate 1 Bitcoin or more, because that is a money they can't afford investing on a volatile market like this.

The important is that they are investing, despite it being a smaller amount of money. The most annoying aspect is the fact most of global population simply ignore Bitcoin, without any plans of adopting it anytime soon.

[passwordnow]

In 2026, approximately 950,000 wallet addresses hold 1 BTC or more, less than 0.2% of all Bitcoin addresses.

If you own even 0.1 bitcoin, you are already in the top 10% of bitcoin. Even though bitcoin is so well known now and so accessible, bitcoin remains to be an asset that is hard to acquire lots of. So, if you needed some motivation to be part of that 10% this post could be it

This is an interesting information. If you hold at least 0.1 Bitcoin, then you're like one of the elites of the world in this space. And take yourself accountable for it because you've been so patient and persistent to hold as much as that. How much more of those people that have been holding more than 1, more than 10 and even more than a hundred. A great motivation indeed because as the price goes down, some of the holders might have been disappointed with how it goes but then, it's best to look at this stat that it's a global statistics.

[Judith87403]

Your just highlighted something very important. Even when estimates say 480 to 500 million person holding Bitcoin, that is yet a small part of the international population of about 8 billion. Now ownership is wider than before, yet  meaningful accumulation is yet scarce.

With just within 950,000 addresses that is holding 1 BTC or maybe more, scarcity is very true. And as long as one person can have control of multiple addresses, the number of person holding 1 BTC is possibly even lower.

Holding 0.1 BTC places a person potentially in a top bracket reveals how quick the market is still. Awareness has increased, yet deep understanding and long term conviction are still very little. The gap can keep creating opportunity for disciplined investors

[aylabadia05]

The number of people and the amount of Bitcoin in each owner's address may be incorrect because quite a few active addresses now have Bitcoin.
It makes sense that many Bitcoin addresses only have less than a whole Bitcoin, for example, less than 1 Bitcoin but 0.1, 0.01, and so on. As some opinions suggest, this is due to the owner's Bitcoin address not having enough money set aside in large amounts to purchase Bitcoin. For those who have a Bitcoin address containing 0.1 Bitcoin, this is the result of DCA (Dollar-Cost Averaging) conducted over more than one year, depending on their economic circumstances.

[Donneski]

Being in the top 10% of holders with even 0.1 BTC is a bit shocking when you think about it. Despite how accessible Bitcoin has become over the years, meaningful ownership is still rare. That said, these exact statistics I think are only estimates given the private nature of wallets but it really underscores the value of planning, patience and disciplined accumulation if you want to be part of that top tier of holders.

[Hazink]

The statistics may not be accurate because Bitcoin is held off-network via ETFs or exchanges, or a new address is created each time a Bitcoin deposit is accepted. relying on the number of addresses alone may not be correct.

I don't think they make their number up based on the total number of bitcoin addresses. Maybe they could have also used other sources to gather data which helps them speculate around that figure, because according to BiTBO, their last data recorded only 200m+ Bitcoin wallet addresses which held SATs on them. If the number of people were rated based on address, then we could have seen a fewer number, not up to half a billion.

[ColdLava40]

** This is just an estimate. With how private owning bitcoin is, we

Why does it matter.

I can't be wasting my time thinking of how many people out there are taking advantage of the opportunity bitcoin offers.

It's better to play your own games if you have the opportunity to. Filter out these kind of noises as they aren't useful..

[AVE5]

Poverty and lack of knowledge are some of the reasons why many people don't own one or more Bitcoins. Due to the rate of inflation, unemployment, conflicts and other factors, the rate of poverty is increasing. More people are now interested in survival and not investment. The earnings of some people are not enough to cover their expenses on basic needs. So they don't have extra funds to buy Bitcoin. Some people are rich but they don't have knowledge about Bitcoin or they don't have an interest. I think this might also be the case with Gold.

All what you've hinted are what I presume to be why bitcoin hasn't been majorly adopried and so on, bitcoin isn't for everyone.
While there're those with the interest to buy, they quite don't have the opportunity to buy due to basic needs hasn't even been met. So investment can't be prioritized against immediate needs when bitcoin volatility can't be a promise to profer quick profits. So most people with the interest to invest buries the dream.
Inflation had made it difficult to commonly afford to invest and bitcoin scarcity has it mind blowing making bitcoin absolutely expensive now as adoption enlarges while those that can actually afford it but fails to leaves themselves with excuses best known to themselves.

[Rgram]

The statistics may not be accurate because Bitcoin is held off-network via ETFs or exchanges, or a new address is created each time a Bitcoin deposit is accepted. relying on the number of addresses alone may not be correct.

I really don’t think we should go into that you know, who owns what, why they won them and how they came to own them. Such minor details don’t matter to an individual when it comes to them having to accumulate Bitcoin themselves. What others own is inconsequential to what you can own and that’s why, I find it not to be of great concerns to discuss on how many people owns Bitcoin.