According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, more than a quarter of all bitcoins in circulation today are concentrated in the hands of a small group of investors.
According to the estimates of the American organization, inCurrently, 10 thousand investors own approximately 5 million BTC, or 27% of the 18.9 million coins mined so far. At current exchange rates, their value is $243 billion.
Based on these data, the researchers concluded that after 14 years of the existence of the Bitcoin network, its ecosystem is still not sufficiently decentralized andsignificantly inferior to Fiat.For comparison, they cite an estimate of the concentration of US dollars from a recent Fed report, which says that a third of all emissions are concentrated in the hands of the richest 1% of Americans.
Despite the alarming results of the study,cryptanalysts see no cause for concern. They note that, unlike the fiat system, distribution increases over time. In addition, almost 1.13 million BTC (over 5.3%) are stored in Satoshi Nakamoto's wallet and about 4 million BTC (21%).
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