U.S Bitcoin ETFs Set To Soon Hold More BTC Than Satoshi Nakamoto

Since debuting on Wall Street, the U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been a resounding success, adding around 37,510 BTC to their holdings per month. If the accumulation continues at this pace, the ETFs could soon collectively hold more BTC than the premier crypto’s mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Satoshi To Be Overtaken As Largest BTC Holder This Year

Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas has forecasted that Satoshi may soon cease being the largest Bitcoin holder by the end of this year.

A chart posted on the X platform on Tuesday by Balchunas indicates that the 11 spot Bitcoin funds trading on American stock exchanges now hold 909,700 Bitcoin, worth around $55.5 billion at its current price of around $61,101.

The pundit estimates that based on the current accumulation, the Bitcoin ETFs will collectively surpass Satoshi’s stack of 1.1 million BTC as early as October.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF alone now holds 347,994 coins, which makes it the third-biggest global Bitcoin holder. “BlackRock alone is already #3 and on pace to be #1 late next year and will likely stay there for a very long time,” Balchunas noted. 

Since mid-January, according to data tracked by Farside Investors, the 11 Bitcoin ETFs have taken in a combined $17.35 billion in new investor money, including the $19.5 billion that investors have withdrawn from Grayscale’s GBTC.

Satoshi’s Untouched Bitcoin Fortune

In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto was the first person to mine Bitcoin at a time when each block mined yielded a 50 BTC reward. At the time, BTC had practically zero value; today, the price has appreciated to just above the $61K mark. Moreover, the block reward has been halved three times since then, and Bitcoin miners currently earn just 3.125 BTC for each block mined.

Although it isn’t 100% certain exactly how many Bitcoins Satoshi mined himself, it is widely believed that he went on to singlehandedly mine 22,000 blocks, bagging a total of 1.1 million in block rewards.

At Bitcoin’s current value, that would place Satoshi’s hoard at around $67.2 billion, making the pseudonymous creator the wealthiest Bitcoin owner in terms of pure BTC holdings.

Satoshi still holds the massive BTC stash and has never touched it since disappearing more than 13 years ago — demonstrating remarkable restraint and genuine benevolence.