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Bitcoin, established in 2009 is the first cryptocurrency that introduced the most secure and transparent payments infrastructure. Since then the crypto asset has seen notable growth and attention. Indeed, since the beginning of this year we have observed that the asset has witnessed mainstream adoption. However, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has recently released an interesting study report. Notably, the report claims that only 0.01% of the BTC holders control 27% of all circulating supply. Moreover, the report als underscored that only a single percent of the flagship crypto coin controls a greater share of asset than the richest US households control in dollars.
Bitcoin survey report by NBER
According to the latest study report shared by NBER, less than 1% of the biggest BTC hodlers are allegedly control over a quarter of all Bitcoin in circulation. Moreover, the report claims that about 10k of all BTC investors, which is nearly 0.01% of all hodlers, own 5 million coins, which is about 27% of the total circulating supply. Apparently, the amount of the asset held by the single percent of hodlers is estimated near $232 billion as a report shared by Wall Street Journal.
On the other hand, analysing the data highlighted in the report, we have observed that the top hodlers of the flagship crypto asset control a bigger share of Bitcoin. Indeed, the figure is bigger than the richest American households controls in dollars. Furthermore, data from the US Federal Reserve (FED) has highlighted that the report notes that the top 1% of US households hold near a third of all wealth.
BTC is not completely decentralized
Financial Professor Antoinette Schoar at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Igor Makarov, at the London School of Economics, introduce some demonstrations. Notably, these professionals aim to demonstrate that the Bitcoin network is not as decentralized as we think. According to Schoar, despite being around for 14 years and observing the hype that the industry has ratcheted up, it’s significant to note that it’s a very concentrated ecosystem.
Where major BTC proponents are promoting the decentralized nature of the coin designed by Satoshi Naksmoto, as one of its biggest principles, the report may sound alarming for the entire community.
Bitcoin’s creator is still the controller
Mati Greenspan, the founder of Quantum Economics, believes that much of the circulating BTC supply is controlled by Satoshi Nakamoto. Indeed, Satoshi is the pseudonymous creator of the BTC whitepaper. Mati further illustrated that Satoshi’s coin alone makes up for more than 5% of the recent circulating supply. Moreover, Mati believes that over time the ownership of the digital asset is designed to get more distributed, but the opposite tends to happen. It is worth noting that much of the circulating supply is also apparently not controlled by anyone, and seems to have already been lost forever.