Owning a Whole Bitcoin Is 70-Times Rarer Than Being a Millionaire

Roughly 825,000 people worldwide own at least one whole bitcoin (BTC), according to new estimates from Bitcoin financial services firm River. That is a far smaller group than the world’s millionaires, who number roughly 57.5 million. The comparison flips a familiar assumption.

Millionaire status sounds exclusive, but reaching that financial milestone turns out to be far more common than holding a single coin.

The Math Behind the Comparison River built its estimate from Bitcoin’s public blockchain, then adjusted for the gap between addresses and actual owners.

Roughly 972,000 addresses hold at least one Bitcoin, but that raw count includes corporate treasuries, governments, exchange-traded funds, and exchanges, all of which needed to be stripped out first.