Ethereum Rich List: Who Holds the Most ETH in 2025?

Key Insights into Ethereum Ownership (2025)

Concentrated Ownership: Roughly 70% of all ETH is held by the top 10 addresses. However, most of these belong to staking contracts, exchanges, or institutional funds, rather than individual "whales."
Beacon Chain Dominance: Almost half of all ETH is locked in the Beacon Deposit Contract, which powers Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
Institutional Inroads: Major institutions such as BlackRock and Fidelity now hold substantial ETH positions, integrating Ether as a key treasury asset.
Evolving Landscape: ETH ownership has shifted from early adopters to the platforms and services built on the Ethereum network.

As of August 2025, on-chain data indicates that the top 10 Ether (ETH) holders control approximately 83.9 million ETH, representing about 70% of the total circulating supply. This concentration raises questions about who truly controls the majority of ETH. The answer points to protocol-level smart contracts, major exchanges, ETF trusts, and even public companies.

This article examines the Ether rich list of 2025, ranging from the Beacon staking contract and Coinbase's hot wallets to BlackRock’s ETHA trust and Vitalik Buterin’s holdings.

Top ETH Addresses by Balance

Ether's circulating supply in mid-2025 is around 120.71 million ETH. Following the Pectra upgrade in May, issuance has stabilized near net zero, providing context for understanding ownership distribution.

The top 10 addresses hold approximately 83.9 million ETH (about 70% of the total supply). Zooming out, the top 200 wallets account for over 52%, holding more than 62.76 million ETH. A significant portion of these holdings is related to staking contracts, exchange liquidity, token bridges, or custodial funds. Unlike inactive Bitcoin whale addresses, these Ether addresses represent actively used infrastructure that powers staking, decentralized finance (DeFi), and institutional operations.

Who Owns the Most Ether?

As of August 4, 2025, the Beacon Deposit Contract holds approximately 65.88 million ETH, representing about 54.58% of the total circulating supply. This smart contract serves as the entry point for Ethereum validators, each of whom must deposit at least 32 ETH to participate in securing the network. The Beacon contract is the largest single ETH holder. While crucial for network security and validator accountability, some critics argue that this concentration introduces systemic risks.

Wrapped Ether (WETH)

The Wrapped Ether (WETH) smart contract also ranks as one of the largest ETH holders, currently holding over 2.26 million ETH (around 1.87% of the circulating supply).

Major Exchange and Custodial Holdings

As of August 22, 2025, the following exchanges and custodians hold significant ETH positions:

Coinbase: 4.93 million ETH (around 4.09% of supply)
Binance: 4.23 million ETH (around 3.51%)
Bitfinex: 3.28 million ETH (around 2.72%)
Base Network bridge: 1.71 million ETH (around 1.4%)
Robinhood: 1.66 million ETH (around 1.37%)
Upbit: 1.36 million ETH (around 1.13%)

These addresses back exchange liquidity, staking derivatives, and cross-chain bridging.

Institutional ETH Ownership

BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) has significantly shifted institutional ETH ownership. With $9.74 billion in net inflows, ETHA now holds over 3 million ETH (about 2.5% of the total supply). Grayscale’s ETHE remains a key player, with 1.13 million ETH under management. Fidelity’s Ethereum Fund (FETH) has reached $1.4 billion in inflows.

Together, these institutions control over 5 million ETH (4.4% of supply), representing a new class of regulated, ETF-based, and staking-aware DeFi participants.

Corporate Ether Holdings

An increasing number of public companies are treating ETH as a treasury asset, similar to MicroStrategy's Bitcoin strategy, often with staking to generate yield. Examples include:

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR): >776,000 ETH
SharpLink Gaming (Nasdaq: SBET): ~480,000 ETH
Bit Digital (Nasdaq: BTBT): ~120,000 ETH
BTCS (Nasdaq: BTCS): ~70,028 ETH

Most of this ETH is actively staked, earning around 3%-5% APY. The companies are using the Ethereum network for its programmability, the stablecoin ecosystem, and the regulatory environment.

Notable Individuals

While smart contracts and institutions dominate, some individuals remain significant ETH holders:

Vitalik Buterin: Estimated to hold between 250,000 and 280,000 ETH.
Rain Lõhmus: Lost access to a wallet containing 250,000 ETH from the 2014 ICO.
Winklevoss Twins: Thought to control 150,000-200,000 ETH personally.
Joseph Lubin: Estimated to retain approximately 500,000 ETH.
Anthony Di Iorio: Reportedly holds 50,000-100,000 ETH.

Rare Company

Fewer than 1.3 million addresses hold at least 1 ETH, placing holders in a rare category.

Tracking Ethereum Ownership Distribution

Identifying top Ether holders relies on tools like Nansen, Dune Analytics, and Etherscan. These platforms categorize wallets based on behavior, linking them to exchanges, funds, smart contracts, or individuals. While helpful, these tools have limitations due to reused deposit addresses, cold wallets evading clustering, and privacy techniques.

Untouched Wallets

One of the oldest untouched ETH wallets (likely from the 2014 ICO) still holds around 250,000 ETH and hasn’t moved in nearly a decade.