After the crypto economy briefly surpassed $3 trillion in market cap, prices have since fallen sharply, redistributing assets across many holders. However, over a decade of price cycles, some addresses—known as whales—have accumulated massive token supplies, sometimes controlling the majority of a project's circulating supply. Based on data from Coincarp and IntoTheBlock, this report examines the concentration of large holders in the top eight crypto assets by market cap.
Bitcoin (BTC) Whale Concentration
Bitcoin's distribution is considered relatively fair. Satoshi Nakamoto is believed to hold 750,000–1 million BTC, but spread across early addresses. IntoTheBlock shows BTC's large holder (addresses owning >1% of supply) concentration at just 10%. Coincarp data indicates the top 10 addresses hold 5.30% of the circulating supply, top 20 hold 7.26%, and top 50 hold 10.78%. There are currently about 40.3 million BTC holders.
Ethereum (ETH) Whale Concentration
Ethereum shows much higher concentration at 42%. The top 10 addresses control 23.39% of ETH supply, top 20 hold 27.06%, top 50 hold 33.02%, and top 100 hold 39.58%. Ethereum has about 185.9 million holders.
Binance Coin (BNB) Whale Concentration
BNB has extreme centralization: the top 10 addresses hold 88.23% of the supply. Binance exchange wallets alone control over 82%: the richest wallet holds 52.02%, the second holds 27.14%, and the third holds 3.55%. BNB has only ~321,000 holders.
Cardano (ADA) Whale Concentration
ADA's large holder concentration stands at 17%. The top 10 addresses hold 4.36%, top 20 hold 5.86%, and the wealthiest wallet holds 1.37%. The top 100 control 16.76% of the 34.2 billion ADA supply, with ~325,600 holders.
XRP Whale Concentration
XRP's IntoTheBlock data is unavailable, but Coincarp shows the top 10 addresses hold 78.02%. The top five are exchange wallets, with Binance's richest address holding 26.91%. The top 20 hold 80.93% and the top 100 hold 85.99% of the ~47.7 billion XRP supply.
Solana (SOL) Whale Concentration
SOL's circulating supply is about 315 million. The top 10 addresses hold 10.11%, with the largest wallet owning 1.58%. The top 20 hold 15.77%, top 50 hold 26.82%, and top 100 hold 34.64%. There are ~8.4 million SOL holders.
Stablecoins and Others
For USDT (ERC20), the top 10 wallets hold 26.79% of supply; for USDC, the top 10 hold 36.22%. MakerDAO controls 10.64% of USDC, and Binance holds 5.62% of ERC20 USDT.
High whale concentration raises concerns about market manipulation: large holders can dump tokens to trigger panic selling, then buy back at lower prices. Historical patterns show that whales often grow larger during bear markets. Investors should monitor these concentration levels as potential risk factors.