Who Owns the Most Ethereum 2025

Ethereum is the market capitalization second-largest cryptocurrency and the foundation on which millions of decentralized applications, DeFi protocols, and token ecosystems are constructed. It's therefore owned by vast quantities of centralized exchanges, institutional investors, bridges, contracts, and very few individuals. When asking for who owns the most Ethereum, one should know that the largest owners are rarely individuals-instead, they are mostly large-scale custodial organizations or smart contracts.

Biggest ETH holders are custodians such as Grayscale, holding ETH on behalf of investors in its trust product, and centralized exchanges such as Binance, Kraken, and Bitfinex. These institutions possess large wallets containing ETH for exchange purposes, user balances, and liquidity. Large holders also possess bridge contracts such as Arbitrum, staking infrastructure such as the Beacon Chain, and tokenization platforms such as Wrapped ETH.

Although there are entities who own the most ETH, the Ethereum rich list is fairly distributed in relation to other networks. That decentralization is in support of the resistance of the network to manipulation. Below are the breakdowns of the top Ethereum holders, which include individual accounts, organizational wallets, and reserves based on contracts.

Top Ethereum Holders

The ETH rich list is a diverse collection of addresses-from protocol-level contracts to exchanges and some well-known individuals. To look at who owns the most ETH, one needs to divide up different types of holders:

• Smart contracts (such as Beacon Chain, Wrapped ETH)

• Centralized exchanges (such as Binance, Kraken, Bitfinex, Gemini)

• Bridges and Layer-2 infrastructure (such as Arbitrum Bridge)

• Investment funds (such as Grayscale Ethereum Trust)

• Individuals (such as notably Vitalik Buterin)

These top Ethereum holders aggregate for a very significant portion of the total supply of ETH, but no one (with the exception of staking contracts and token wrappers) has a majority. Data from Etherscan and on-chain observation show that most top addresses have infrastructure or custodial functions. That is, the ETH/USDT in these addresses usually represents aggregated holdings by thousands or even millions of users.

Grayscale Ethereum Trust

Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) also has the most institutional Ethereum. While its ETH is divided across many wallet addresses instead of being concentrated into one on-chain identity, overall the holdings are more than 3 million ETH, and Grayscale is the largest centralized owner of Ethereum.

Grayscale offers its ETH trust as a fund vehicle to accredited investors, an opportunity to get exposure to Ethereum but not actually possess the asset. The trust operates similarly to an ETF and is publicly traded using the ticker ETHE. In 2025, Grayscale still pursues regulatory approval to make the trust a full open-ended Ethereum ETF, following on from its move with the 

Bitcoin Trust

The ETH that Grayscale holds is stored in cold storage with institutional-grade custody solutions. These reserves are not used in staking or DeFi programs-they are static, long-term reserves backing the shares sold to investors.

Grayscale's domination of ETH rich list at the time of this writing proves the role of regulated financial products in ETH accumulating. Despite the decentralized nature of Ethereum, institutional custodians like Grayscale now represent a significant percentage of the network's total supply.

Vitalik Buterin

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is one of the few known holders of a considerable amount of ETH. His biggest address-popularly referred to as VB3-contains over 244,000 ETH. This makes him one of the biggest single ETH holders to have ever been recorded. In addition to VB3, Buterin also holds other found wallets, leaving his total estimated holdings at over 270,000 ETH.

Buterin was initially rewarded with over 500,000 ETH from the Ethereum genesis block as a core contributor. He has donated enormous amounts of money to public goods, philanthropy, and DeFi experiments, most noticeably throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and India relief donations. Despite these enormous transfers, his on-chain balance is still high on the Ethereum rich list.

Beacon Chain Contract

The Beacon Chain contract is the largest single holder of Ethereum ever recorded. Developed as a part of Ethereum's transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS), the Beacon Chain smart contract allowed users to stake USDT/ETH in an attempt to become validators or to delegate stake for the purposes of generating rewards. It played a central role in the Ethereum Merge, which ended in 2022.

As of 2025 when this is being written, the Beacon Chain contract holds in custody more than 36 million ETH and represents more than 30% of circulating supply. Deposits include institutional custodians, individual stakers, and centralized exchanges like Coinbase and Binance, who pooled client funds for staking.

Unlike other holders on the ETH rich list, the Beacon Chain is not a custodial smart contract. It doesn't "own" the ETH in the traditional sense-each deposit still remains associated with the original validator's key. However, for tracking purposes, all of the staked ETH resides in this single contract, making it sit at the top of the address by balance.

Because staked ETH is locked up or under withdrawal lockup through validator mechanics, this holding is less liquid than wrapped tokens or exchange reserves. The visibility of the beacon chain is, however, a testament to growing participation in Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus and long-term framework of network security.

Wrapped ETH Contract

The Wrapped ETH (WETH) contract is the second-largest holder of Ethereum, second only to the Beacon Chain. It currently holds over 3.2 million ETH, which is largely put to work in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. While ETH, being a native token of the Ethereum network, is utilized elsewhere, WETH is an ERC-20 token-a standardized format required by most DeFi protocols and decentralized exchanges.

The technical justification for wrapping ETH is that the vast majority of DeFi protocols and smart contracts only accept ERC-20 tokens. Wrapping ETH into WETH enables ETH users to supply liquidity, trade on Uniswap, or participate in decentralized borrowing and lending. The WETH contract is essentially a token vault-users deposit ETH and receive WETH on a 1:1 basis.

Even though it holds billions of dollars' worth of ETH, the contract is non-custodial. The ETH within the contract is wholly collateralized and can be unwrapped by anybody, at any time. Yet, due to how deeply integrated WETH is with DeFi, most of this ETH remains locked up for liquidity needs.

On the Ethereum rich list, the WETH contract stands second only to the Beacon Chain and well ahead of most centralized institutions. Its bulk indicates the level of adoption of wrapped assets and the magnitude of Ethereum-based financial infrastructure.

Binance

Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by traded volume in the world, is also one of the centralized top Ethereum holders. When considering the biggest Ethereum holdes, Binance always appears at or near the top since it is a custodian for tens of millions of users. Binance holds more than 3.3 million ETH across several addresses in its different wallets:

• Binance 7, Binance 8, and Binance 28 are large-volume wallets employed for platform liquidity and hot wallet operations.

• The address for the Binance-Peg Token holds ETH bridged to the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) to allow users of the BSC access to Ethereum liquidity when they are interacting with BEP-20 variants of ETH. Each of these addresses is separately ranked as a top 20 ETH holder.

Together, Binance's balance is above most rivals and smart contracts. However, worth mentioning is that this ETH does not belong to Binance but to its users-it is in custody for withdrawal, trading, and staking services. Binance's ranking on the Ethereum rich list is a result of the volume of the activity on the exchange and the frequency with which the exchange is used as a gateway to the Ethereum network.

Gemini

Gemini, a US crypto exchange run by the Winklevoss twins, is another big Ethereum holder. The exchange boasts one of the top individual ETH wallet addresses holding over 400,000 ETH. This makes Gemini one of the top Ethereum holders by wallet size.

Unlike some other exchanges that spread their holdings across multiple addresses, Gemini's ETH is more consolidated, making its presence on the Ethereum rich list more visible. This wallet is likely used for a combination of hot wallet operations and institutional custody services, especially since Gemini offers crypto storage solutions through Gemini Custody.

The exchange does not engage in DeFi activity with user funds, and the ETH is not staked on-chain via this address. Instead, the funds are held to support trading, withdrawals, and client balances across the platform's services. Gemini's inclusion in the biggest Ethereum holders list reflects its long-standing role in the US crypto market and its strong focus on regulatory compliance and institutional access to ETH.

Bitfinex

Bitfinex, a seasoned global crypto exchange, is among the top Ethereum holders, with a combined total of more than 1 million ETH across three main addresses. They are two exchange wallets for usage within the platform and a multi-signature wallet, likely utilized for cold storage.

Bitfinex's ETH is used in margin trades, high-frequency trading, and client withdrawals. Similar to any other central exchange, ETH in Bitfinex technically does not belong to the company but rather to clients. However, due to the consideration of the tokens being pooled into Bitfinex-operated wallets, the exchange is always among the biggest ETH holders.

All three Bitfinex wallets appear in the top 20 addresses of Ethereum, according to on-chain data. Their cold wallet in particular holds a significant portion of the total, reflecting the exchange's priority on reserve security and transparency.

Bitfinex's representation in the ETH rich list demonstrates the ongoing demand for centralized exchanges despite advancements in DeFi. With the increased decentralization in the sector, a substantial percentage of Ethereum still remains in the possession of traditional trading platforms.

Kraken

Kraken is one of the oldest and most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges and is also among the top ranking in the list of the biggest ETH holders. Its largest wallet, named Kraken 13, contains over 1.5 million ETH and is one of the five largest individual Ethereum addresses in terms of balance.

Much of the ETH reserve at Kraken is sourced from a combination of user deposits, exchange liquidity, and staking services. Kraken has been offering Ethereum staking before the Merge and continues to do so after the merge. Consequently, some of this ETH may be delegated or in custody on behalf of staking customers, though not all of it is staked directly through this address.

Though Kraken runs a number of wallets, Kraken 13 is the most prominent and is perhaps being utilized for widespread operations or reserve warehousing. Being featured on the Ethereum rich list supports Kraken's status as a significant ETH custodian and infrastructure provider.

In spite of recent US regulatory pressure, especially related to its staking services, Kraken is still a significant participant in ETH markets-facilitating trading, custody, and network engagement.

Arbitrum Bridge

The Arbitrum Bridge maintains the largest non-exchange ETH balance, which stands at over 1.4 million ETH. It is an Ethereum-based Layer-2 (L2) rollup solution that enables users to bridge assets from the Ethereum mainnet onto the Arbitrum network while getting lower fees and higher speeds on transactions.

When a user crosses ETH over to Arbitrum, their tokens are put in this smart contract on Ethereum's base chain. They receive, in return, a synthetic ETH on the Arbitrum chain. This puts the initial ETH in lockup in the bridge contract, which is non-custodial and fully on-chain transparent.

The Arbitrum Bridge is always among the top Ethereum owners because of its design: it must lock real ETH on Layer 1 to secure it and trust it in the Layer-2 platform. The larger this balance becomes as L2 scaling solutions become more mainstream, the better.

Its inclusion on the ETH rich list illustrates Ethereum's approach to scaling and the expanded use of bridges in cross-layer infrastructure. Unlike exchanges, this contract does not hold user funds in custody-it simply keeps ETH in escrow while its equivalent is spent somewhere else.

Robinhood

Robinhood, the free trading app, is also an impressive addition to the Ethereum rich list, with slightly under 1.5 million ETH controlled by a single wallet. It is one of the largest singular ETH wallet holders, ahead of most centralized exchanges and even some Layer-2 bridge contracts.

The ETH in Robinhood's balance is custodied in trust by the users who trade Ethereum within the app. Robinhood, originally offering exposure to crypto but lacking full wallet support, has expanded its crypto functionality to encompass deposits, withdrawals, and self-custody transfers since. Despite this, most ETH remains concentrated in the platform's main custodial address.

In contrast with Grayscale or staking contracts, Robinhood does not really utilize this ETH for DeFi, staking, or yield programs internally. It is merely a custodian with the user funds pooled under a single high-value wallet.

Robinhood's position as among the largest ETH holders demonstrates the increasing power of fintech apps in managing Ethereum assets. As the retail trend widens and further users seek Ethereum exposure through traditional apps, such custodial holdings should increase.

What the Rich List Reveals

The ETH rich list is not a leaderboard-it's a snapshot of how ETH is being stored, held, and used throughout the network. While exchanges like Binance and Kraken, staking infrastructure like the Beacon Chain, and token contracts like Wrapped ETH lead the list, they serve a wide range of functions-anything from custody and trading to decentralization and scaling.

Institutions like Grayscale, Robinhood, and Bitfinex hold ETH in custody on behalf of millions of consumers. Technical functionaries like Arbitrum and WETH smart contracts enable functionality that enables Ethereum to scale and talk to DeFi. And private holders like Vitalik Buterin keep Ethereum's roots grounded to its core community.

Though some addresses who own the most ETH, Ethereum remains relatively well-distributed. Aside from staking and technical contracts, no one controls more than a few percent of the supply. This base of decentralized ownership is what gives the network its strength and long-term stability.

Knowing who holds the most Ethereum offers insight into the network's architecture-one that balances centralized custody with decentralized infrastructure, institutional faith over the long term and vigilant user activity.