US entities dominate bitcoin holdings, 65% above offshore peers: CryptoQuant

The share of bitcoin reserves held by U.S. entities is now 65% greater than those of non-U.S. entities, according to CryptoQuant data .

CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said on X that the ratio divides bitcoin holdings of known U.S. entities — including MicroStrategy, exchange-traded funds, exchanges, miners and the government — by those of known entities offshore.

The data shows that the ratio soared from 1.24 in September 2024 to 1.66 on Dec. 16. The ratio stood at 1.65 as of Jan. 6. For most of 2023, when bitcoin traded under $30,000, the data showed that offshore bitcoin holdings exceeded U.S. holdings.

In the past three months, pro-crypto Donald Trump won the presidential race and vowed to build a national strategic bitcoin reserve, which sent positive sentiment throughout the market and drove bitcoin above $100,000 to its all-time high of $108,135. 

Following Donald Trump’s re-election, spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds also experienced significant trading volume and inflows, with weekly net inflows worth billions of dollars. The inflows led the ETFs to hold total net assets of over $108 billion, or 5.74% of the bitcoin market capitalization, according to SoSoValue .

MicroStrategy, the world's largest corporate holder of bitcoin, has continuously added more bitcoin to its strategic reserve, with the most recent purchase of 1,070 BTC bringing its total holdings to 447,470 BTC. The company, co-founded by Michael Saylor, plans to raise $42 billion in capital to fund bitcoin purchases over three years.

Such substantial bitcoin investments made by institutional investors, and potentially by the U.S. government in the future, have prompted multiple non-U.S. authorities to consider building their own bitcoin reserves. Such discussions have taken place in Russia, Poland and the city of Vancouver.

However, Steve Hanke, Johns Hopkins University’s professor of applied economics, recently said he is “completely opposed” to the concept of a national strategic bitcoin reserve in the U.S., as savings for the reserve would not be invested in real capital used for production. 

“Savings funneled into bitcoin aren't building factories, creating jobs or driving innovation,” Hanke wrote in an X post earlier this week. He said in an attached video clip: “If we don’t increase productivity, we have a real problem because that fundamentally is what underlies improved standards of living and prosperity in an economy.”  

Bitcoin is trading at $94,271, down 2.21% in the past 24 hours leading up to 12:30 p.m. in Hong Kong, according to The Block’s bitcoin price page .