**Arkham Intelligence Reveals Ethereum’s Largest ETH Holders: Staking Contract Leads the Pack**
New on-chain research from Arkham Intelligence this week reveals that the wallet address holding the most ETH today is neither an individual, nor an exchange, nor an ETF issuer—but the staking contract that secures the Ethereum network.
According to Arkham, the ETH2 Beacon Deposit Contract currently holds more than 72.4 million ETH, worth around $252 billion at current market prices. This staggering amount represents approximately 60% of Ethereum’s total supply, underscoring the critical role of staking in the network’s security and operation.
### Largest Individual ETH Holders
In terms of individual ownership, the research confirms that the largest known individual holder of ETH is Rain Lohmus, the founder of the Estonian bank LHV. Lohmus purchased 250,000 ETH in the 2014 presale for roughly $75,000. Today, those coins would be worth approximately $871 million. However, he no longer has access to them as he lost the private keys years ago.
The second largest identifiable individual holder is Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who currently holds around 240,000 ETH. This amount is valued at about $840 million.
### Institutional Holders and Exchanges
Beyond individuals, centralized exchanges and institutional entities collectively control some of the largest ETH pools:
– **Binance** holds approximately 4.09 million ETH.
– **BlackRock**, the asset manager, owns around 3.94 million ETH, primarily associated with its iShares Ethereum Trust ETF.
– **Coinbase** follows closely, with around 3.5 million ETH spread across multiple addresses, including cold wallets and staking reserves for its cbETH staking token.
– **Bitfinex** also appears among the top institutional holders.
### Government Seized Funds and Stolen ETH
Arkham’s research also highlights government holdings. For example, the United States government controls about 60,000 ETH, mainly consisting of seized criminal funds. These include funds from the Potapenko/Turogin case and seizures related to the Bitfinex hacker incident.
High-profile hacker wallets remain significant holders as well. Notably, the wallet controlled by the Gatecoin exploiter still holds more than 156,000 ETH stolen back in 2016.
### Wrapped Ether (WETH) and Layer-2 Bridges
On the infrastructure side, the Wrapped Ether (WETH) contract holds over 2.2 million ETH. This supply represents WETH minted to make ETH compatible with the ERC-20 token standard.
Native Layer-2 bridges also account for substantial locked ETH balances:
– Arbitrum’s native bridge has approximately 833,000 ETH deposited.
– Base’s bridge holds around 723,000 ETH.
### Summary
Overall, the latest on-chain data from Arkham Intelligence identifies staking contracts, exchanges, ETF issuers, bridges, and custody platforms as the largest known entities holding Ether today. These insights provide a clearer picture of Ethereum’s distribution landscape and the key players supporting its ecosystem.
https://bitcoinethereumnews.com/ethereum/eth2-beacon-deposit-contract-now-controls-60-of-all-ethereum-arkham/