U.S. Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have recorded an impressive growth trajectory. In January, the products gained regulatory approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and since then, they have been accumulating Bitcoin nonstop.

Road to beating Satoshi Nakamoto

In a post on X, Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg’s Senior ETF Analyst, highlighted the ETFs’ achievement. The post drew attention to the products’ overall performance since they were approved for trading.

Notably, the U.S. Bitcoin ETF attained $17.8 billion in inflows in 2024, setting a new record for the digital asset’s year-to-date (YTD) accumulation of 916,047 BTC. That is just about 84,000 BTC away from 1,000,000 BTC.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, is believed to have 1.1 million BTC. Given the growth trajectory of these Bitcoin ETFs, they have attained 83% of Satoshi’s holdings and could surpass them.

If these institutional investors keep increasing their inflows, they could exceed Satoshi’s record and push him off the top. Analysts say this highlights the increasing influence of these institutional products on the market.

Institutional titans lead Bitcoin-holding race

Meanwhile, a list of the top 12 Bitcoin holders in the world shows Satoshi Nakamoto in the top, closely followed by Binance, with 673,783 BTC. BlackRock, Fidelity and Grayscale, all with their own ETF products, have 359,271 BTC, 287,153 BTC and 254,677 BTC, respectively.

These three asset managers have a combined Bitcoin holding of 901,101 BTC. That leaves the other five asset managers with Bitcoin ETFs with a balance of 14,946 BTC.

MicroStrategy, the business intelligence firm led by Michael Saylor, occupies the sixth position with 252,220 BTC. Given the firm’s aggressive accumulation strategy, it could break into the elite group of the “top five” Bitcoin holders in the world soon.