The top five holders have accumulated around 25% of the Ethereum supply. Who are the biggest holders of Ethereum, and how can you track this for yourself?
Ethereum is the leading smart-contract blockchain, and its native cryptocurrency, $ETH, has repeatedly survived bear markets and maintained its position as the #2 crypto below Bitcoin.
Glassnode posted a Tweet on May 18th showing that the number of Ethereum wallet addresses holding $ETH 0.1+ hit a five-month high of 5,224,127 million. As the second largest crypto by market cap and the leading smart-contract network, Ethereum has been accumulated by whales, DeFi protocols, and crypto reserves.
Due to the transparent nature of blockchains, we can use tools like EtherScan and CoinCarp to find out who the biggest holders of $ETH are and, in the process, gain a better understanding of the market. So, let’s look at who owns the most Ethereum and the overall ownership of the cryptocurrency’s supply.
Ethereum Holder Statistics - Who Owns The Most Ethereum in 2023?
Before looking at individual $ETH addresses, it’s worth painting a picture of the overall market. Over-centralization of a token’s supply can be a threat to the network as it opens the door to so-called 51% attacks. If you read a list about who owns the most Ethereum without any context, you might start to worry about such an attack.
The Ethereum holder statistics in reference to the overall control of supply are as follows:
Top 10 Holders: Control 28.94%.
Top 20 Holders: Control 31.84%.
Top 50 Holders: Control 37.14%.
Top 100 Holders: Control 42.68%.
This data from CoinCarp reveals that even though some wallet addresses own an astonishing amount of $ETH, the network is still relatively insulated from nefarious actors that might attempt a 51% attack.
1. Beacon Chain
Address: 0x00000000219ab540356cbb839cbe05303d7705fa
Quantity: 21,955,918
Percentage: 18.25%
The Beacon Chain is Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake layer which has become integral to the network's consensus mechanism since the merge shifted the network from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake.
Validators looking to earn $ETH rewards for approving transaction lock tokens on the Beacon Chain. The more $ETH deposited, the more secure the network becomes, as it makes organizing a 51% attack increasingly costly.
The Beacon Chain holds the most Ethereum out of any single address by a considerable amount, with around 22 million tokens locked valued at approximately $39 billion, accounting for just over 18% of the total supply.
2. Wrapped Ether
Address: 0xc02aaa39b223fe8d0a0e5c4f27ead9083c756cc2
Quantity: 3,518,114
Percentage: 2.9%
Wrapped Ether ($WETH) is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain that maintains a 1:1 value with the native $ETH token. $WETH allows users to trade, lend and borrow on DeFi applications and DEXs, which are designed for ERC-20 tokens. It’s an essential tool for using Ethereum-based DeFi platforms.
As demand for Ethereum-based DeFi protocols has increased, so has the demand for $WETH. With over 3.5 million Ether tokens in the $WETH wallet, it holds just under 3% of the total supply, valued at $6.3 billion as of writing.
3. Binance 7
Address: 0xbe0eb53f46cd790cd13851d5eff43d12404d33e8
Quantity: 1,996,008
Percentage: 1.66%
As the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance holds considerable reserves of several market-leading tokens. By holding a large reserve of $ETH, the exchange can facilitate fast and secure trades and prevent market panic resulting from reserve shortages, as we saw during the collapse of FTX.
The Binance Ethereum address holds around 2 million tokens which makes up just over 1.5% of supply and has a market value of roughly $3.6 billion.
4. Kraken 13
Address: 0xda9dfa130df4de4673b89022ee50ff26f6ea73cf
Quantity: 1,690,840
Percentage: 1.41%
Similarly to Binance and other exchanges, Kraken holds a considerable amount of $ETH in its reserves. A solid reserve of tokens allows the platform to offer users reliable trading services, DeFi, and other Ethereum-based services.
Kraken’s Ethereum wallet holds around 1.7 million tokens, accounting for 1.41% of the total supply and a market value of around $3 billion.
5. Mystery Fund
Address: 0x0716a17fbaee714f1e6ab0f9d59edbc5f09815c0
Quantity: 1,636,037
Percentage: 1.36%
Despite 0x0716a17fbaee714f1e6ab0f9d59edbc5f09815c0 being the #5 biggest Ethereum wallet address, its owner is a mystery. Etherscan data shows that the address began accumulating $ETH in June 2022 and has continued to purchase large amounts of the token more or less every month.
Interestingly, Etherscan also revealed that the address holds a scattering of low-cap altcoins such as $WOOF and $CHEEDA. The address’ $ETH holding of around 1.6 million accounts for 1.3% of the total supply and has a market value of just under $3 billion.
Conclusion
The top five holders have accumulated around 25% of the Ethereum supply. While this level of centralization may seem concerning at first glance, the situation is more nuanced and complex than it appears.The Beacon Chain accounts for over 18% of all tokens in circulation, while the remaining four top holders, which include Binance, Kraken, Wrapped Ether, and the mystery wallet, account for 1-3%.
The Beacons Chain's holdings are understandable, considering its role in keeping the PoS consensus mechanism running smoothly, and the other four addresses have relatively modest holdings.
