The price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin is near an all-time high. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading around $58,000 USD. US financial institutions are largely responsible for this rise in the price of Bitcoin.
Major investment banks such as Black Rock, GrayScale and Fidelity are investing billions of dollars in the purchase of this volatile digital asset.
Since these events in the past few weeks, these financial institutions have come to be known as the ‘bitcoin wheel’.
Only 21 million Bitcoins can be created globally due to its special system; 19 million have already been created. Many of them, though, have already been permanently lost.
Crypto Exchange
It is estimated that Binance, the biggest exchange globally, possesses over 5.5 million bitcoins. It is followed by Bitfenix (403000), Coinbase (386000), Robin Hood (146000) and finally OKX (126000). In total, it is believed that about 11 percent of all bitcoins are held by such exchanges.
Leaving your coins with such an exchange can also prove risky, for example the collapse of FTX which resulted in users losing access to their digital currency. Bitcoin fundamentalists also express concerns that a major regulated and law-abiding exchange runs counter to the anti-establishment idea of the currency.
Tether, a cryptocurrency company
Tether has its own crypto token known as a stablecoin, but the company that owns it has been buying bitcoins for years.
Industry watchers estimate that the firm holds about 67,000 bitcoins, as an audit report published in January showed the company had the equivalent of that many bitcoins in dollars.
Tesla
Tesla’s quarterly earnings report at the end of 2023 did not mention any change in its bitcoin holdings. So we can assume that the company still owns 9700 coins. In 2021, Elon Musk’s company had purchased more than 40,000 coins, but most have been sold in recent years.
El Salvador
The bitcoin-loving president of the Central American country of El Salvador began buying bitcoins with public money in 2021 as part of a controversial investment plan for his country.
Dutch researcher Elias, who maintains a website that tracks the portfolio, compiles the amount of bitcoins held by the nation from tweets. El Salvador does not keep a public record of how many coins were purchased and at what price.