Only 14 percent of the active Bitcoin addresses are under the control of private investors, according to data gathered by Chainalysis.
A Bitcoin address is like an email address that can send and receive bitcoins. It is free to set up and there is no limit on how many an individual or company can have.
As a result, there are currently about 460 million addresses.
However, only some are relevant — the ones controlled by people or services who actually own Bitcoin. In this case we are talking about 172 million addresses — and of those only around 25 million (14 percent) belong to private investors (private wallets holding bitcoins). The remaining 86 percent belong to services, such as exchanges or darknet markets.
In addition, Chainalysis estimates that on average only 20% of the bitcoin transaction value is economic — a transfer between different people via relevant addresses.
The Bitcoin blockchain is indeed vast and complex.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to stay up to date on the latest crypto and blockchain news.