Unveiling the ETH Holdings List: Who Owns the Most ETH in 2025?

Author: Bradley Peak; Compiler: Felix, PANews

Key Points:

• About 61% of all ETH is held by just 10 addresses, but most of these belong to staking contracts, exchanges, or funds, not individual whales.

• Nearly half of all ETH is held in a single smart contract: the Beacon deposit contract, which powers Ethereum's proof-of-stake system.

• Large institutions like BlackRock and Fidelity, as well as publicly traded companies, now hold millions of ETH, making it a significant reserve asset.

• ETH ownership has shifted away from early adopters. Now, everything depends on the platforms and services built on top of it. As of August 2025, on-chain data shows that the top 10 ETH holders control approximately 61% of the total circulating supply. This raises the question: Who exactly holds the majority of ETH? The answer points to protocol-level smart contracts, major exchanges, exchange-traded fund (ETF) trusts, and even publicly traded companies. This article explores the ETH rich list in 2025, from the Beacon staking contract and Coinbase's hot wallet to BlackRock's ETHA Trust and Vitalik's holdings. ETH Addresses by Balance As of mid-2025, the circulating supply of ETH is approximately 120.71 million. Following the Pectra upgrade in May, issuance has stabilized at near-zero levels. As briefly discussed above, as of September 2, 2025, the top ten ETH addresses hold 71.8 million ETH (approximately 60% of the total supply). More broadly, the top 200 wallets account for over 52% of the total, holding over 62.76 million ETH (most of which is tied to staking contracts, exchange liquidity, token bridges, or custodial funds). Unlike inactive BTC whale addresses, these ETH whales are highly active on the Ethereum network, reflecting ETH's ability to fully support staking, DeFi, and institutional operations. Who owns the most ETH in 2025? As of September 2, 2025, the Beacon deposit contract held approximately 68 million ETH, representing approximately 56% of the total circulating supply of 120.71 million ETH. These figures are roughly consistent with a report from March 2025, which estimated the stake at approximately 55.6% (see the chart below). This smart contract serves as the entry point for Ethereum validators, each of whom must deposit at least 32 ETH to participate in the network's security. Even after withdrawals are enabled in 2023, funds will not become liquid immediately. Validators must exit the active set, wait for an unbonding period of approximately 27 hours, and then rely on protocol-controlled sweeps to release their ETH. This makes the Beacon contract the largest holder of ETH—not an individual, but the network itself. It ensures validator accountability through severe penalties and organized exit mechanisms. Nevertheless, some critics argue that concentrating half the supply in a single contract could pose systemic risks in the event of a coordinated exit or protocol-level error. The Wrapped Ether (WETH) smart contract is also one of the largest holders of ETH, currently holding over 2.26 million ETH (approximately 1.87% of the circulating supply).

  Second Largest ETH Wallet

  As of September 2, the following exchanges and custodians are the second largest ETH holders:

  • Coinbase: 5.16 million ETH (about 4.2% of the total supply)

  • Binance: 4.06 million ETH (about 3.3%)

  • Robinhood: 1.37 million ETH (about 1.1%)

  • Upbit: 1.35 million ETH (about 1.1%). These addresses represent an active infrastructure layer where ETH is used to support exchange liquidity, staking derivatives like cbETH, and cross-chain asset bridging. Largest ETH Wallets in 2025 As of late July 2025, BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) has driven a significant shift in institutional ETH ownership. ETHA has seen $9.74 billion in net inflows and currently (as of August 2025) holds over 3 million ETH (approximately 2.5% of the total supply), making it one of the largest ETH wallets in 2025. Grayscale's ETHE remains a significant player in the market, managing 1.13 million ETH. Fidelity's Ethereum Fund (FETH), launched in 2024, has already seen $1.4 billion in inflows, while Bitwise is shifting from solely investing in BTC to ETH-based mandated investments with staking capabilities. Together, these institutions now control over 5 million ETH (4.4% of the total supply), shifting the landscape of ETH holdings. They represent a new class of DeFi millionaires: regulated, ETF-backed, and staking-focused.

    

    Corporate Ethereum Whale Addresses

    A growing number of public companies are following Strategy's Bitcoin treasury plan (but adding staking) and treating ETH as an asset. For example (but not limited to):

    • Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) holds over 1.8 million ETH (approximately US$7.8 billion). SharpLink Gaming (NASDAQ: SBET) has acquired approximately 797,700 ETH (approximately $3.5 billion) since June. Bit Digital (NASDAQ: BTBT) holds approximately 120,300 ETH, having transitioned from BTC to ETH following an equity financing round. BTCS (NASDAQ: BTCS) reported holding approximately 70,028 ETH (approximately $307 million), funded by convertible bonds. Much of this ETH is actively staked, earning an annualized yield of approximately 3% to 5%. These companies believe that Ethereum's programmability, stablecoin ecosystem, and regulatory clarity (such as the GENIUS Act) are fundamental to their ETH treasury strategies.

      This new list of ETH billionaires includes not only individuals but also businesses betting on the long-term value of ETH.

      ETH Billionaires List

      While smart contracts and institutions dominate the 2025 Ethereum Rich List, a handful of individuals remain major holders of ETH.

      Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin reportedly holds approximately 250,000 to 280,000 ETH (approximately $950 million), primarily held in a handful of non-custodial wallets, including the well-known VB3 address. LHV Bank co-founder Rain Lõhmus purchased 250,000 ETH during the 2014 initial coin offering (ICO) but later lost the private keys. His tokens remain unspent and are currently worth nearly $900 million. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, early investors and founders of Gemini, control between 150,000 and 200,000 ETH, not including the over 360,000 ETH held in Gemini exchange reserves. Joseph Lubin, Ethereum co-founder and head of ConsenSys, holds approximately 500,000 ETH (approximately $1.2 billion), though this figure has never been officially confirmed. Anthony Di Iorio, another Ethereum co-founder, reportedly holds between 50,000 and 100,000 ETH. As of early 2025, Etherscan data showed that there were over 130 million unique addresses on Ethereum, but fewer than 1.3 million held at least one ETH, representing less than 1% of the total. How to Track ETH Ownership Distribution Identifying the largest ETH holders in 2025 relies on tools like Nansen's Token God Mode, Dune Analytics, and Etherscan. These platforms categorize wallets based on their behavior and associate them with exchanges, funds, smart contracts, or individuals. Token God Mode maps wallet clusters to known entities, tracks inflows and outflows, and ranks the largest ETH wallets in 2025. Dune Analytics uses pattern tables like "labels.addresses" to distinguish externally owned accounts (EOAs) from smart contracts and exchanges, generating insights into public Ethereum addresses and ETH holding patterns. Etherscan improves transparency of crypto wallets by labeling wallets based on transaction history, attribution, or user-submitted evidence. Together, these sources paint a picture of ETH ownership distribution. However, limitations remain. Reused deposit addresses can inflate numbers, cold wallets can evade cluster management, and privacy technologies can obscure true control. Even the top 200 Ethereum addresses by balance may include fragmented or mislabeled entities. The ETH address ranking reflects a combination of determinism and statistical inference, not complete visibility.