Who has the most bitcoins in the world and Russia

Barry Silbert

Analysts call the founder of Digital Currency Group one of the largest holders of bitcoin. In 2015, Barry Silbert bought from the US government 48 thousand coins confiscated from Silk Road for $13.5 million. The entrepreneur is considered an ardent supporter of Bitcoin. He has repeatedly argued that the first cryptocurrency will outlive all other coins.

Barry Silbert is associated with many blockchain projects, including the Coinbase exchange and Galaxy Digital Holdings. His other large BTC purchases have not been reported, but it is likely that he may have increased the number since 2015.

Global companies

The largest cryptocurrency has long been used by businesses to protect capital against inflation. Companies invest a portion of corporate savings in BTC. On a quarterly basis, they provide reports on their financial condition to shareholders and the SEC. Therefore, the amount of bitcoins on their balance sheets can be determined fairly accurately. Usually the data lags by 3-4 months. Sometimes companies publish reports about coin purchases or sales in the media even earlier.

MicroStrategy

The company is engaged in business analytics and cloud services. MicroStrategy started investing in Bitcoin in 2020. The head of the company, Michael Saylor, believes that inflation will devalue national currencies. Therefore, his company invests in the main digital asset every year, regardless of the market environment, and is not going to sell its bitcoins.

Tesla

In January 2021, the company told the SEC that it had invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. This made Tesla the largest holder of the asset among publicly traded companies. Immediately after the news broke in the media, Bitcoin rewrote its high at $44k.

The company also stated that it would accept payments in cryptocurrency. However, later the attitude of executives to bitcoin changed. At the end of 2021, Tesla reported profits from transactions with cryptocurrency. In early 2022, the market began to decline. In the summer of 2022 in the quarterly report, the company reported the sale of 75% of BTC at $22-25 thousand. Tesla decided to record a loss of $34 million.

In January 2023, the company published a quarterly report on financial condition. According to the document, it has 10.72 thousand Bitcoin on its balance sheet.

Galaxy Digital Holdings

The American company provides digital asset management services. Its head Michael Novogratz said that he started investing in BTC in 2018. According to Buy Bitcoin Worldwide, Galaxy Digital Holdings has 8.1 thousand crypto coins on its balance sheet in June 2023.

Countries

Among the largest holders of bitcoin are state governments. They mostly obtain assets by seizing them from fraudsters. According to Buy Bitcoin Worldwide, the Chinese government holds 194 thousand coins in 2023. They were confiscated while investigating the Plus Token fraud. There is no information about the sale of assets yet.

Ukraine is in second place with 46.35 thousand bitcoins. In 2022, El Salvador recognized the main digital asset as a state currency. The country bought 2.381 thousand crypto coins for $26 billion.

Finland stores 1.98 thousand BTC, which were seized in 2016. There is also a lot of BTC in Russia. However, all crypto coins are held by individuals and companies.

Representatives of the authorities

Unlike ordinary citizens, officials are obliged to declare cryptocurrency. The reports of the representatives of the Ukrainian authorities for 2022 contain information about the possession of a total of 46.3 thousand Bitcoin. In January 2022, a member of the Belgian Parliament Christophe de Bucelaere began to receive a salary in cryptocurrency. Monthly $6.14 thousand was transferred to the official’s account through the Bit4You platform. The politician himself considers the experiment a success, despite the fall in quotations of the asset by more than 70% in a year. He stated that he did not convert the digital currency into fiat, but transferred in full to the cold wallet.

In 2022, Bob Goodlatte, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Justice, declared investments in crypto-assets totaling $80 thousand. The congressman invested in BTC, ETH and BCH.

According to CoinDesk, the SEC requirement to disclose the size of investments in cryptocurrencies affected more than 2 million U.S. officials. Some of them obtained the coins through mining, while others are involved in investing and trading.

Who has the most Bitcoin in Russia

The Russian Federation is a major player in the market. It is logical that there are quite a few bitcoin millionaires in the country. However, it is impossible to establish exactly who has the most bitcoins in Russia. The state of the balances can only be judged by the entrepreneurs’ own statements. It is known that businessmen Kirill Meshcheryakov and Sergey Sergienko created fortunes on early investments in Bitcoin. However, the exact figures on the balances are not disclosed.

The largest BTC wallets

According to BitInfoCharts, there are 4 addresses with balances of more than 100k coins in June 2023. Of these, 2 were created by exchanges Binance (248,597 BTC) and Bitfinex (178,010 BTC) for cold storage of customer funds. The owners of the other 2 addresses are unknown.

It can be assumed that the wallets are also owned by large cryptocurrency companies or private investors. It is possible that they have the same owner. The accounts were created on May 7 and May 8, 2023. The first one was replenished with a single transaction for 117,351 coins. The second one received 20 transfers in 1.5 months. In June 2023, its balance is 111,700 BTC.

Prospects for the development of bitcoin

At the end of 2022, the European Central Bank published a report in which it called the situation after the collapse of the FTX exchange “the last breath of Bitcoin”. The regulator pointed out the coin’s flaws:

• Mining harms the environment.
• The price is maintained artificially.
• The real value of the digital code is zero.
• The lack of regulation allows money laundering.

However, ECB representatives do not take into account that cryptocurrency was originally created as a form of payment beyond the control of governments. At the same time, Bitcoin is accumulated not only by private investors, but also by states. It is being integrated into economic processes.

By 2023, 15 countries have legalized payments in BTC. According to the end of 2022, 38.64 thousand cryptomats were installed in the world. The leaders in their number are the United States, Canada, Spain and Australia. All over the world it is possible to use the services of online and offline exchangers to convert digital currency into national money.

Bitcoin has managed to gather a strong community. It is being used despite the lack of a legal framework. Therefore, the demand for the coin is expected to continue. According to bold predictions, by 2025, its rate could rise to $100 thousand.

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