Bitcoin’s Decentralization Claim in Check as Report Shows Less Than 1% Controls 27% of the Circulating Supply

Bitcoin’s decentralization as popularly advocated by the coin’s proponents is now in check going by the revelation in a new research study. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, citing a recent study conducted by The National Bureau of Economic Research, an American private nonprofit research organization, which shows that about 10,000 Bitcoin holders own about 5 million BTC or 27% of all 18,905,993 BTC in circulation.

The WSJ report showcases that the monetary equivalent of the BTC being held by this restricted number of investors is equivalent to $232 billion. Bitcoin’s market capitalization is currently pegged at $870.3 billion at the time of writing. The research conducted by finance professors Antoinette Schoar at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Igor Makarov at the London School of Economics compared the wealth distribution of Bitcoin and the US Dollars.

According to the study, drawing insight from the US Federal Reserve, America’s wealthiest families, which make up 1% control just about a third of all wealth in circulation.

“Despite having been around for 14 years and the hype it has ratcheted up, it’s still the case that it’s a very concentrated ecosystem,” Schoar said, drawing reference on the world’s first and largest digital currency.

Despite the published data, the details of the research may not come down well with proponents of Bitcoin’s technology who have advocated for a mainstream embrace of the coin based on its decentralization features. Infact, financial institutions, including Bank of America have joined the researchers into the new technology to take advantage of this potential move into the mainstream

Bitcoin’s Decentralization is Building Up

Just like the XRP coin and many other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin’s decentralization features are arguably building up as the technology is still considered to be in its infancy, despite its decade-old existence. The number of active Bitcoin holders has continued to grow by the day, and despite the fact that early adopters have massive holdings of the coin in their possession, more investors, both on the retail and the institutional sides are making their entry into the space already.

A number of potential investors are notably cautious of the regulatory environment surrounding Bitcoin before taking a dive to back the premier digital asset. With the continuous clarity that the digital asset is likely to gain amongst regulators around the world in the near future, more people are bound to back the digital asset, thus enhancing its decentralization over time.