Almost half of all bitcoins are stored in users' personal wallets
According to data from the analytics platform River, the share of bitcoins held in personal wallets (self-custody) has reached 45.6% of the total supply. This amounts to 9.57 million BTC, which is more than the combined total held on exchanges and by custodians.
Of these, nearly 38% (7.95 million BTC) belong to active personal wallets of bitcoin holders, while less than 8% (1.62 million BTC) are considered lost forever (with over 90% of losses occurring in 2011 or earlier).
For comparison: exchanges hold 2.91 million BTC (13.9%), custodians hold 4.66 million BTC (22.2%). Another 1.51 million BTC (7.2%) is held by funds and ETFs, and 1.05 million BTC (5%) by public companies.
The statistics were published against the backdrop of a hack of the Coldcard hardware crypto wallet, which allows for the offline storage of cryptocurrency assets. At the end of July, hackers found a vulnerability in the firmware of some device models, which allowed them to crack the keys and withdraw more than $100 million in bitcoin.
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1August 18, 2026 694
