Many crypto investors closely track the activity of Bitcoin whales to help them predict market movements. BlackRock, strategy, Coinbase and Binance are among the largest
Many crypto investors closely follow the activity of Bitcoin whales to help them predict market movements. Here's how much Bitcoin the largest crypto exchange, BlackRock, Strategy, Coinbase and Binance own:
*Data as of February 6, 2025.
Coinbase, Binance, BlackRock, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) and other large financial institutions are among the biggest Bitcoin holders. If you're interested in tracking what large cryptocurrency holders are doing with their funds in real-time, we recommend using a crypto whale tracker tool.
Coinbase is a major cryptocurrency exchange that has been operating since 2012, making it one of the longest-standing businesses in the crypto industry. Thanks to its user-friendly design and a strong reputation for security, Coinbase has established itself as one of the most active cryptocurrency trading platforms. Coinbase became a public company in April of 2021 through a listing on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker COIN.
Although Coinbase holds some Bitcoin as part of its reserves, the vast majority of the Bitcoin under the exchange's control belongs to its clients. Coinbase is likely the second largest Bitcoin holder overall, as Satoshi Nakamoto is estimated to own 1.1 million Bitcoin.
Binance is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. The exchange was founded in 2017 by Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, who served as its CEO until 2023. Binance raised funds to launch its exchange through an ICO (initial coin offering) by selling the BNB token. Currently, BNB is the sixth-largest crypto asset, with a market capitalization of nearly $85 billion. Just like with Coinbase, the vast majority of BTC held by Binance is custodied on behalf of its clients.
BlackRock is a multinational investment company that is currently the world's largest asset manager in terms of AUM (assets under management). BlackRock made its first major step into crypto in 2024, when it launched the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), a spot Bitcoin ETF, in January of 2024. Currently, IBIT is the largest Bitcoin ETF by a significant margin. IBIT holds $57 billion worth of Bitcoin, while the second-largest Bitcoin ETF, Fidelity's FBTC, holds $20.9 billion worth of Bitcoin.
Strategy is a business intelligence company that initially made waves during the dot-com bubble when its stock price massively increased in 1999, only to crash in the first half of 2000. In 2020, Strategy founder Michael Saylor brought the company back to relevance when he adopted a strategy of buying Bitcoin and adding it to the company's reserves.
As the investment proved to be highly successful, the company began increasing its Bitcoin holdings and eventually started taking on debt to buy more Bitcoin. Today, Michael Saylor is one of the world's most prominent Bitcoin advocates, and Strategy's stock primarily moves based on the company's Bitcoin holdings instead of their other business activities.
