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States control nearly 3% of Bitcoin's supply
2024-02-15 17:26
BTC | -0.77%
About 2.6% of the supply of bitcoin (BTC is currently in the hands of a few states around the world, according to figures from major cryptocurrency tracking sites globally.

According to data published by sites such as Buy Bitcoin Worldwide and Bitcoin Treasuries, the bitcoins handled by governments exceed the holdings of many private companies and firms linked to the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

In this way, the holdings of states are second only to those of the large funds that manage Bitcoin spot ETFs, with more than 4% of the digital currency's supply estimated at 21 million.

Although there are some slight differences in the numbers, the statistics presented by both trackers point to an approximate 560,000 BTC, more than USD 29,000 million that are controlled by about 10 countries.

In that sense, the two sites coincide in including the United States, China, Germany, Ukraine, El Salvador and Georgia. Bitcoin Treasuries has the longest list and adds nations such as the United Kingdom, Bhutan, and Venezuela, while Bitcoin World Wide puts Finland on the list.

The figures in both trackers place the United States in first place, as the country that owns the most bitcoins. Estimates point to more than 200,000 BTC valued at around $11 billion. These coins are in wallets managed by the Department of Justice and are the product of seizures that the government has made.

As reported by CriptoNoticias, most of the seizures made by the U.S. government have been made from the illegal marketplace Silk Road, one of the most controversial dark web marketplaces of the last decade. China is the second country on both lists, with 0.9% of bitcoin's supply. The Asian powerhouse owns 194,000 BTC the proceeds of the seizure of the scam platform Plus Token.

The United Kingdom and Germany are included in this top. The first with more than 60,000 BTC confiscated from a citizen last month. The money comes from a fraud scheme run in China between 2014 and 2017. Germany, on the other hand, has 50,000 BTC for a seizure that was also executed in January. Between the two countries they have 0.5% of the supply.

Finland and Georgia rank as the fourth and fifth countries with the highest possession of bitcoins as a result of seizures. Between the two of them, they have more than 2,000 BTC; less than 0.1% of the total supply.

As reported by CriptoNoticias in 2021, the bitcoins held by Finland are the result of seizures related to a dark web drug supplier, known as Douppikauppa.

The curious cases of Bhutan and Venezuela
A curious inclusion made by the Bitcoin portal Treasuries in its list of countries with the most bitcoin are Bhutan and Venezuela.

The former, according to the figures, owns 621 bitcoins representing about USD 32 million; while for Venezuela, 240 BTC (12 million dollars) are accounted for. Between the two of them, they control 0.004% of the supply.

There is no very clear information about how these two countries have come together. In Bhutan, a Buddhist kingdom located at the eastern end of the Himalayas, monarch Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck is known to mine cryptocurrencies.

In the case of Venezuela, the information is less clear, in fact, the tracker does not provide a source to confirm the data. Because of this, it can only be said that for some time there have been rumors that Nicolás Maduro's government would be mining bitcoins in a hidden way, although there is no way to confirm this.

Source:Cryptonews