Nearly 60% Bitcoin is owned by addresses

The current Bitcoin bull run has embarrassed non-believers and reassured believers. Some crypto market analysts have substantiated their skepticism, focusing on the distribution of wealth among investors rather than Bitcoin's price. Darth Powell, a finance specialist with 15k+ followers, was prompted by the recent surge to post a screenshot from Bitinfocharts.com that revealed some alarming data.

According to the data, just 0.04% BTC addresses hold over 62% of Bitcoin. As you move up the scale, you'll see that only 0.35% address holders own nearly 85% BTC, and a little north of 2% will bring ownership to 94%. When you look at global wealth distribution, Bitcoin is not even close in terms of "unfairness." Credit Suisse estimated in 2020 that the wealthiest 1.1% of people owned almost half the total wealth. It's likely worse today.

Bitcoin landscape changes constantly, but not in a manner that reduces wealth concentration. This is understandable given that investing in Bitcoins is easier if you have millions of dollars to spare. As of press time, Bitcoin distribution figures are slightly different. A tiny amount of Bitcoin (a little over 59%) is currently linked to just 0.03% addresses.

The number of addresses is 1.99%, which represents 92.78% of total BTC. (Don't confuse this with the number owners as one person can own multiple addresses). Four addresses are in possession of an absurd amount of BTC. They own between 100k to 1 million units with a market share of 3.4%.

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Source: Bitinfocharts.com

It's no secret that Bitcoin owners are a diverse group. It's still worth mentioning, since many (most?) Retail investors are unaware of the full extent of this phenomenon. If Bitcoin were to suddenly become the global currency of choice, an enormous amount of wealth would be concentrated in the hands of a small group of participants.

Darth Powell, in light of the above, questions decentralization being the key feature of Bitcoin. He is both right and wrong. Bitcoin is indeed decentralized in terms of the logic and rules that govern its network.

You may need to do a reality check if decentralization is associated with noble concepts such as democracy, equity or the empowerment of people. Bitcoin's wealth distribution is completely out of sync with its decentralization.