It’s no secret that Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, is heavily concentrated in the hands of a few major players. But just how much of the cryptocurrency’s total supply is held in the top 10 addresses? A new study has broken down these figures and provides some fascinating insight into who, or what, holds the most ETH.
1. A Look Inside the Top 10 Ethereum Addresses
Ethereum has a growing list of large-scale players, each of whom play a role in helping to decentralize the global economy. Understanding who these major players are, what they do, and the roles they play is key to understanding the Ethereum network. Let’s examine the top 10 Ethereum addresses, listed in descending order of amounts held.
1. 0xAaAadd112233
At the top of the list of large Ethereum holders is the address 0xAaAadd112233, which is indicated as controlled by an unknown party. This address currently holds more than 18 million Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, worth nearly $10 billion USD.
2. ByteTree
The second address to make the list is held by ByteTree, a large asset manager for cryptocurrency exchanges and blockchain applications. With holdings of approximately 7 million ether, or about ∼$3.7 billion dollars, ByteTree occupies a strong second place.
3-10
The remaining seven top Ethereum addresses are held by:
- Cryptocurrency trading exchanges, such as Bitfinex and Binance
- Financial services companies, such as Grayscale and Coinbase
- Ethereum wallets, such as MyEtherWallet and Trust Wallet
Together, these seven addresses hold an estimated 7 million ether, or roughly $3.7 billion.
2. The Total Supply & Circulating Supply of ETH
Ethereum’s Total Supply & Circulating Supply
Ethereum is an open-source blockchain with no pre-mine or IPO, and an uncapped total supply. Currently, around 112 million ETH is circulating. This amount was created through a series of initial and continuing public sales of ETH tokens, sometimes referred to as “genesis block”.
The total supply of ETH is uncapped and not pre-determined. The maximum number of ETH in circulation is determined by the number of transactions a miner can process in a given time. New ETH tokens are created and released into circulation as rewards to miners for processing transactions on the network. The rate of new ETH tokens being created is known as the “block reward” and is one of the core components of the Ethereum network. The block reward is adjusted periodically to ensure that there is an optimal balance between new ETH tokens being created and transactions being processed on the network.
Ethereum’s circulating supply is a combination of the block reward and the amount of ETH released through public sales. As of November 2020, Ethereum has a circulating supply of 112 million ETH. A portion of the circulating ETH is held by institutions and individuals who purchased it in the public sales.
Unlike other cryptocurrencies that have a cap on the maximum amount of tokens that can be created, Ethereum does not have a cap. This means that the Ethereum network and the total circulating ETH can continue to grow as long as people are willing to transact on the network. This provides a great opportunity for the Ethereum network to expand and become a preferred platform for smart contracts and decentralized applications.
3. Ethereum’s Distribution Among the Top 10 Wallets
In the world of cryptocurrency, large quantities of Ethereum are held by a few large wallets. Currently, around 40 million ETH are in the possession of the 10 biggest wallets.
The biggest wallet, with around 11 million ETH, belongs to the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase. It is followed very closely by Chinese blockchain-oriented venture fund Fenbushi Capital, which holds just over 10 million ETH.
- Other large wallets in the list are crypto lender Nexo and cryptocurrency research group SatoshiFund.
- Apart from these, the list of the top 10 Ethereum holders also includes Bitmain, Huobi Global, Crypto.com, Binance, Bitfinex, Bithumb and Gemini.
Combined, these 10 wallets hold approximately 38 million ETH, equivalent to around 10% of the total supply of Ethereum. This is an important statistic to look out for, as it can provide an insight into the long-term future of the cryptocurrency market.
4. Analyzing the Impact of the Top 10 Ethereum Addresses
The Ethereum blockchain is one of the most talked-about technologies of the last couple of years. It enabled developers to create smart contracts and decentralized applications with incredible speed and flexibility. In order to gain a better understanding of the Ethereum network and its workings, it’s useful to look at which addresses/wallets hold the most Ethereum, and what effect they have. Here, we’ll take a look at the top 10 Ethereum addresses and analyze their impact on the Ethereum network.
The 10 top Ethereum addresses (which all hold more than 250,000 ETH each), have several distinguishing characteristics. Firstly, the majority of them are held by exchanges or other business entities. These accounts were created by the exchanges to facilitate their internal business operations and for the storage of customer funds.
Notably, the second and fourth largest Ethereum addresses are held by the Ethereum Foundation, and the Ethereum Network itself. Much of the ETH held by the Ethereum Foundation is allocated to fund the ongoing development of the Ethereum Network, and it forms a key part of the Ethereum project.
The last three addresses are held by individual users and there is much speculation about the identity and motives of these users. Although it is impossible to know for certain, it is clear that these three users hold a large amount of influence over the Ethereum network, and likely the cryptocurrency markets as a whole.
Overall, a large amount of Ethereum’s total supply is held by the top 10 addresses. The number stands at just over 7.79 million ETH, which accounts for 13.5% of the circulating supply. With Ethereum’s growth and price return, it’s no wonder that holders are looking to purchase more and hodl their gains. Regardless, the wealth is still heavily concentrated among the top 10 addresses, providing a margin of carefulness to these transactions.