Key takeaways:
Approximately 70% of all ETH is concentrated in just 10 addresses, primarily owned by staking contracts, exchanges, or funds rather than individual investors.
Almost half of all ETH is held within a single smart contract: the Beacon Deposit Contract, which underpins Ethereum’s proof-of-stake framework.
Major institutions like BlackRock, Fidelity, and publicly traded companies now possess millions of ETH, establishing Ether as a substantial treasury asset.
The ownership of ETH has transitioned from early adopters; today, focus lies on the platforms and services built around it.
As of August 2025, on-chain metrics reveal that the top 10 Ether (ETH) holders control about 83.9 million ETH (nearly 70% of the total circulating supply).
This has sparked questions in the community about who actually possesses the bulk of ETH. The findings suggest that significant amounts are held in protocol-level smart contracts, major exchanges, exchange-traded fund (ETF) trusts, and even public companies.
This article delves into the Ether wealth distribution of 2025, covering entities from the Beacon staking contract and Coinbase’s hot wallets to BlackRock’s ETHA trust and Vitalik Buterin’s notable holdings.
Top Ether addresses by balance
Ether’s circulating supply in mid-2025 is approximately 120.71 million ETH. Following the Pectra upgrade in May, issuance has stabilized around net zero. This context helps to comprehend Ether ownership distribution.
As stated, the top 10 Ether addresses hold 83.9 million ETH as of Aug. 4, 2025 (about 70% of the total supply).
Expanding the view, the top 200 wallets comprise over 52%, possessing more than 62.76 million ETH (with most holdings linked to staking contracts, exchange liquidity, token bridges, or custodial funds). Unlike stagnant Bitcoin whale addresses, these Ether whale addresses actively underpin infrastructure, showcasing ETH’s capability to effectively support staking, decentralized finance (DeFi), and institutional operations.
Who owns the most Ether in 2025?
As of Aug. 4, 2025, the Beacon Deposit Contract holds approximately 65.88 million ETH, accounting for about 54.58% of the overall circulating supply of 120.71 million ETH.
These statistics align with March 2025 estimates, which placed the share near 55.6% (see figure below).
This smart contract serves as the entry point for Ethereum validators, each needing to deposit a minimum of 32 ETH to secure the network.
Even after withdrawal functionality was introduced in 2023, the funds aren’t instantly available. Validators must exit the active set, wait around 27 hours for the unbonding period, and then rely on a protocol-controlled sweep to access ETH.
This positions the Beacon contract as the largest ETH holder — not an individual, but the network itself.
With slashing penalties and structured exits, it maintains validator accountability. However, some critics argue that concentrating half the supply in a single contract poses systemic risks during coordinated exits or protocol-level failures.
Did you know? The Wrapped Ether (WETH) smart contract is also among the largest ETH holders, currently possessing over 2.26 million ETH (approximately 1.87% of the circulating supply).
The second-largest ETH wallets
As of Aug. 22, 2025, the following exchanges and custodians rank as significant ETH holders:
Coinbase: 4.93 million ETH (approximately 4.09% of supply)
Binance: 4.23 million ETH (nearly 3.51%)
Bitfinex: 3.28 million ETH (around 2.72%)
Base Network bridge: 1.71 million ETH (approximately 1.4%)
Robinhood: 1.66 million ETH (about 1.37%)
Upbit: 1.36 million ETH (around 1.13%).
These entities represent a layer of active infrastructure where Ether facilitates exchange liquidity, staking derivatives like cbETH, and asset bridging across chains.
Biggest ETH wallets in 2025
As of late July 2025, BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) catalyzed a notable shift in institutional ETH ownership. With $9.74 billion in net inflows, ETHA now (August 2025) holds over 3 million ETH (approximately 2.5% of total supply), qualifying it as one of the largest ETH wallets of 2025.
Grayscale’s ETHE remains significant, managing 1.13 million ETH. Fidelity’s Ethereum Fund (FETH), initiated in 2024, has amassed $1.4 billion in inflows, while Bitwise is transitioning from Bitcoin-only exposure to ETH-based initiatives with staking features.
Collectively, these institutions now control over 5 million ETH (4.4% of supply), reshaping ETH holding patterns. They represent a novel class of DeFi millionaires who operate within regulated, ETF-based, and staking-aware frameworks.
Corporate Ether whale addresses
An increasing number of public companies are adopting a strategy akin to Strategy’s Bitcoin (BTC) approach (but with staking) to consider ETH as a treasury asset. Examples include, but are not limited to:
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) possesses over 776,000 ETH (valued around $2 billion), financed by a $250-million PIPE round.
SharpLink Gaming (Nasdaq: SBET) has acquired approximately 480,000 ETH (valued at $1.65 billion) since June.
Bit Digital (Nasdaq: BTBT) holds about 120,000 ETH, having transitioned from Bitcoin following an equity raise.
BTCS (Nasdaq: BTCS) reports around 70,028 ETH (approximately $275 million), supported by convertible notes.
Most of this ETH is actively staked and yields around 3%-5% APY. These firms cite Ethereum’s programmability, stablecoin ecosystem, and regulatory clarity (including the GENIUS Act) as the foundation for their ETH strategies.
This emerging ETH billionaire list includes not just individuals but also corporate treasuries betting on Ether’s long-term potential.
The ETH billionaire list
While smart contracts and institutions dominate the Ethereum rich list for 2025, a few individuals still emerge as prominent ETH holders.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, is estimated to possess between 250,000 and 280,000 ETH (around $950 million), primarily contained within a few non-custodial wallets, including the notable VB3 address.
Rain Lõhmus, co-founder of LHV Bank, acquired 250,000 ETH during the 2014 initial coin offering (ICO) but lost access to the private key. His coins remain untouched, now valued close to $900 million.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, early investors and founders of Gemini, are believed to control 150,000-200,000 ETH, distinct from Gemini’s exchange treasury of over 360,000 ETH.
Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and head of ConsenSys, is estimated to hold around 500,000 ETH (approximately $1.2 billion), although this has never been officially verified.
Anthony Di Iorio, another co-founder of Ethereum, reportedly has between 50,000 and 100,000 ETH.
Did you know? As of early 2025, Etherscan data reported over 130 million unique addresses, yet fewer than 1.3 million hold at least 1 ETH, representing less than 1% of the total. That single ETH places you in an exclusive segment on the Ether rich list of 2025.
How to track Ethereum ownership distribution
Identifying the top Ether holders in 2025 relies on tools such as Nansen’s Token God Mode, Dune Analytics, and Etherscan. These platforms categorize wallets by their behavior, associating them with exchanges, funds, smart contracts, or individuals.
Token God Mode clusters wallet groups to known entities, monitors inflows/outflows, and ranks the largest ETH wallets in 2025.
Dune dashboards employ schema tables like “labels.addresses” to distinguish externally owned accounts (EOAs) from smart contracts and exchanges, offering insights into public Ethereum addresses and ETH holding trends.
Etherscan classifies wallets according to transaction history, attribution, or user-submitted data, facilitating transparency in crypto wallets. Together, these resources help delineate Ether ownership distribution.
However, challenges remain. Reused deposit addresses can inflate metrics, cold wallets may bypass clustering, and privacy techniques can obscure actual control. Even the top 200 Ethereum addresses by balance likely contain fragmented or mislabeled entities. ETH address rankings reflect a combination of certainty and statistical estimation, lacking full transparency.
Did you know? One of the oldest untouched ETH wallets (likely from the 2014 ICO) retains around 250,000 ETH (approximately 0.2% of the supply) and has not moved a single gwei in nearly ten years.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
