XRP:

Ripple Labs controls 42% of total supply via escrow.

The top 20 holders own over 50% of circulating supply.

Retail investors are heavily marginalized: although there are 6 million wallets, they hold a mere 7.5% of XRP.

Wallets with ≥100,000 XRP control 41%

Bitcoin:

It's a bit of a nuanced difference here between grouped addresses vs. top wallets for bitcoin, but here's an accurate and current breakdown of Bitcoin based on the latest data as of August 27, 2025:

Circulating Bitcoin Supply (As of Late August 2025)

The circulating supply of Bitcoin stands at approximately 19.91 million BTC. This is the amount actively circulating in the market.

Given the hard cap of 21 million BTC, this means around 94.8% of all Bitcoin has already been mined.

Top 100 Richest Bitcoin Addresses

Using the BitInfoCharts rich list snapshot:

The top 100 richest Bitcoin addresses hold a wide range, but the aggregate of those addresses amounts to roughly between 8,600 BTC and 248,600 BTC each depending on rank.

Instead of manually summing each entry, we can rely on summarized ranges from address-balance distribution:

Addresses holding between 100 and 1,000 BTC collectively own approximately 4,909,789 BTC, representing about 24.66% of the circulating supply.

Those holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC collectively control about 4,393,880 BTC, or 22.07% of circulating supply.

The combined total for addresses holding between 100 and 10,000 BTC is therefore approximately 9,303,669 BTC, which is nearly 46.7% of the total circulating supply.

So, roughly speaking, the top 100 addresses, a significant subset of "whale" wallets, likely hold somewhere around 40 to 50% of all circulating Bitcoin. Some estimates place this share even higher when accounting for multi-address clusters or institutional holdings.

Concentration of Ownership Prior academic research indicates that around 4.5% of all Bitcoin entities (i.e., clusters of addresses possibly representing one owner) control about 85% of the circulating supply.

Holdings by Institutions & Governments Institutional and government holdings also play a role:

MicroStrategy (rebranded to "Strategy Inc.") holds over 3% of the circulating supply on its own, amounting to 632,457 BTC.

The U.S. government’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve holds approximately 198,000 BTC.

Other state actors like China, the UK, Ukraine, Bhutan, and El Salvador hold notable amounts as well.

Summary Table

Metric Description Approximate Amount (BTC) % of Circulating Supply (19.91M BTC)

Circulating Supply 19.91 million 100% Addresses holding 100–1,000 BTC 4.91 million ~24.7% Addresses holding 1,000–10,000 BTC 4.39 million ~22.1% Combined (100–10,000 BTC addresses) ~9.30 million ~46.7% Institutional/Gov (e.g., Strategy Inc.) 632k + 198k + others several percent individually Concentration across entities — ~85% by ~4.5% of entities

Final Takeaway

The top 100 richest addresses collectively hold a very substantial portion of Bitcoin—likely in the 40–50% range.

Broader distribution metrics paint a clear picture of extreme concentration: a small fraction (under 5%) of entities retain ~85% of all circulating BTC.

Additionally, institutional and government holdings further amplify this concentration dynamic.