Owning a full Bitcoin in 2025 — just how rare is it?

Key Points

1. Around 827,000-900,000 addresses hold at least 1 Bitcoin, but the actual number of unique individuals is likely much smaller, making ownership rare (0.01%-0.02% of the global population).

2. Bitcoin's scarcity is highlighted by its hard cap of 21 million coins, with over 19.8 million already mined and a significant portion held by a few large addresses (e.g., top 100 addresses control 58% of supply).

3. Global Bitcoin ownership is uneven, with only 6.8% of the population owning any cryptocurrency, and a tiny fraction holding a full Bitcoin due to financial and regulatory barriers.

4. Psychological and market volatility deter many from owning 1 BTC, with high-profile critics like Warren Buffett and Robert Shiller labeling it a speculative bubble.

5. Strategies to acquire 1 BTC include dollar-cost averaging (DCA), high-income allocation, or employer-paid crypto salaries, while ETFs and institutional adoption have expanded access.