Approximately 61% of Ethereum is held by just 10 addresses, but most belong to staking contracts, exchanges, or funds, rather than individual whales.
Almost half of the Ethereum is stored in a smart contract: the Beacon deposit contract that supports the Ethereum proof-of-stake system.
Institutions like BlackRock, Fidelity, and publicly traded companies now hold millions of Ethereum, making it an important treasury asset.
The holders of Ethereum have shifted from early adopters. Today, the focus is on the platforms and services built on it.
On-chain data shows that as of August 2025, the top 10 Ethereum (ETH) holders control about 61% of the total circulating supply.
As a result, the community has begun to pay attention: who are the real big holders? The answer points to protocol-level smart contracts, major exchanges, ETF trusts, and publicly traded companies.
This article will delve into the Ethereum billionaire list of 2025, from the Beacon staking contract, Coinbase hot wallets, to BlackRock's ETHA trust and Vitalik Buterin's legendary holdings.
As of mid-2025, the circulating supply of Ethereum is approximately 120.71 million ETH. After the Pectra upgrade in May, the net issuance of ETH has been zero. Understanding the distribution of Ethereum holdings requires this context.
As mentioned, on September 2, 2025, the top 10 Ethereum addresses held a total of 71.8 million ETH (about 60% of the total supply).
Further, the top 200 addresses hold over 52%, collectively holding 62.76 million ETH (these holdings are mostly related to staking contracts, exchange liquidity, cross-chain bridges, or custodial funds). Unlike Bitcoin whale addresses, which are mostly dormant, Ethereum whale addresses are often active infrastructures, reflecting ETH's key role in staking, decentralized finance (DeFi), and institutional applications.
As of August 4, 2025, the Beacon deposit contract holds approximately 65.88 million ETH, accounting for about 54.58% of the total circulating supply of 120.71 million.
A report from March 2025 indicated that this contract accounted for about 55.6% (see the chart below), which is consistent with current data.
This smart contract serves as the entry point for Ethereum validators, each of whom must deposit at least 32 ETH to participate in network security.
Funds cannot be immediately liquidated. Validators must first exit the active set, wait for an unlocking period of about 27 hours, and then release ETH through a protocol-controlled liquidation process.
Thus, the Beacon contract has become the largest holder of ETH—not individuals, but the entire network.
This mechanism ensures validator accountability by reducing penalties and structuring exits. However, some critics argue that having over half the supply concentrated in a single contract could lead to systemic risks in the event of collusion or protocol-level vulnerabilities.
Did you know? The Wrapped Ether (WETH) smart contract is also one of the largest holders of Ethereum, currently holding about 2.26 million ETH (approximately 1.87% of the circulating supply).
As of August 22, 2025, these exchanges and custodians are among the largest holders of Ethereum:
Coinbase: 4.93 million ETH (approximately 4.09% of the supply)
Binance: 4.23 million ETH (approximately 3.51%)
Bitfinex: 3.28 million ETH (approximately 2.72%)
Base Network Bridge: 1.71 million ETH (approximately 1.4%)
Robinhood: 1.66 million ETH (approximately 1.37%)
Upbit: 1.36 million ETH (approximately 1.13%).
These addresses constitute an active infrastructure layer, with ETH used to support exchange liquidity, staking derivatives like cbETH, and cross-chain asset bridging.
By the end of July 2025, BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) has driven a significant shift in institutional ETH holdings. ETHA saw a net inflow of $9.74 billion, holding over 3 million ETH (approximately 2.5% of the total supply) by August 2025, making it one of the largest ETH wallets of 2025.
Grayscale's ETHE remains a key player, managing 1.13 million ETH. Fidelity's Ethereum Fund (FETH) has attracted $1.4 billion in inflows since its launch in 2024, while Bitwise Asset Management has shifted from Bitcoin products to those that include ETH staking features.
These institutions collectively control over 5 million ETH (4.4% of the supply), fundamentally changing the ETH holding landscape, representing a new class of regulated, ETF-based, and staking-aware DeFi millionaires.
An increasing number of publicly traded companies are following the Strategy's Bitcoin (BTC) model (but adopting a staking approach), using ETH as a treasury asset. Notable examples include but are not limited to:
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) holds over 1.8 million ETH (approximately $780 million).
SharpLink Gaming (NASDAQ: SBET) has acquired about 797,700 ETH (worth $350 million) since June.
Bit Digital (NASDAQ: BTBT) holds about 120,300 ETH, having shifted from Bitcoin after equity financing.
BTCS (NASDAQ: BTCS) reports approximately 70,028 ETH (about $30.7 million), funded by convertible notes.
Most of the above ETH is actively staked, with annual yields of about 3%-5%. These companies view Ethereum's programmability, stablecoin ecosystem, and regulatory clarity (such as the GENIUS Act) as the strategic foundation for ETH.
The new generation of ETH billionaires includes not only individuals but also corporate treasuries actively betting on the long-term value of Ethereum.
Although smart contracts and institutions dominate the 2025 Ethereum billionaire list, a few individuals have emerged as major ETH holders.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is widely believed to hold between 250,000 to 280,000 ETH (approximately $950 million), with these assets primarily distributed across a few non-custodial wallets, including the famous VB3 address.
Rain Lõhmus, co-founder of LHV Bank, purchased 250,000 ETH during the initial coin offering (ICO) in 2014 but lost the private key. These assets have remained untouched, valued at nearly $900 million.
Gemini early investors and founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss personally hold between 150,000 to 200,000 ETH, managed separately from the over 360,000 ETH held in the Gemini exchange treasury.
Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys head Joseph Lubin is estimated to hold about 500,000 ETH (approximately $1.2 billion), though this has never been officially confirmed.
Another co-founder, Anthony Di Iorio, is said to hold between 50,000 to 100,000 ETH.
Did you know? As of early 2025, Etherscan data shows over 130 million unique addresses, but fewer than 1.3 million hold at least 1 Ethereum, less than 1% of the total. Owning 1 Ethereum gives you a place on the 2025 Ethereum billionaire list.
Identifying the largest Ethereum holders in 2025 relies on tools like Nansen's Token God Mode, Dune Analytics, and Etherscan. These platforms classify wallets by behavior, associating them with exchanges, funds, smart contracts, or individuals.
Token God Mode maps wallet clusters to known entities, tracking inflows/outflows and ranking the largest Ethereum wallets in 2025.
Dune dashboards separate externally owned accounts (EOA) from smart contracts and exchanges using patterns like "labels.addresses," generating insights about public Ethereum addresses and holding patterns.
Etherscan labels wallets based on transaction history, ownership, or user-submitted evidence, enhancing the transparency of crypto wallets. These data sources collectively depict the distribution of Ethereum holdings.
However, limitations still exist. Reused deposit addresses may lead to data inflation, cold wallets are difficult to aggregate, and privacy technologies obscure true control. Even the top 200 Ethereum address list may contain fragmented or misattributed entities. The ranking of ETH addresses combines determinism and statistical inference, making complete visualization challenging.
Did you know? One of the oldest dormant ETH wallets (likely from the 2014 ICO) still holds about 250,000 ETH (approximately 0.2% of the supply), having not moved a single gwei in nearly a decade.
Related: CoinMarketCap: The WLFI supported by the Trump family will unlock 27 billion tokens upon launch.
Original article: “Who Owns the Most Ether in 2025? The ETH Billionaire List Revealed”
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