Galaxy Research’s October 2026 snapshot placed roughly 11.1 million BTC — about 55% of the approximately 20.1 million mined supply — in an “unattributed” bucket, meaning its clustering and off-chain data could not link those addresses to an exchange, fund, government, or other known entity.
The remaining ~45% is attributed to identifiable entities or clusters, including exchanges, ETFs such as BlackRock’s IBIT, the U.S. government, and the Satoshi-era “Patoshi” mining pattern — the largest single attributed holder at about 1.12 million BTC.
Galaxy head of research Alex Thorn said the data shows self-custody remains widespread despite institutional adoption: “still a ton of bitcoin (maybe even most) is held by individuals in self-custody.” But Galaxy does not publish a breakdown of the unattributed bucket, which may include lost coins, unidentified institutions, complex custody arrangements, and early-era coins mined by people other than Patoshi.
The report cautions that “unknown” is not the same as “lost.” Independent estimates of permanently lost Bitcoin cluster around 2.3 million to 4 million BTC, with some dormant-address analyses arguing for as much as 5.6 million BTC unmoved for over a decade. Dormant coins may still be spendable, and the 11.1 million figure is an identification residual, not a loss estimate or a supply-shock signal.
The research highlights the limits of blockchain analytics, the persistence of pseudonymous ownership, and the fact that institutionalization has not made Bitcoin fully identifiable.
