it's estimated that around 1,000 people own about 40 percent of the world's total bitcoin. This is an average of about $105.6 million per person, according to Aaron Brown, formerly of AQR Capital Management.
Those huge holders are often called "whales".
With not that many people that practically own the cryptocurrency market, they're becoming a worry to investors. Those whales can soar or plummet price by just playing a portion of their holdings. And as the price of the volatile currency is soaring high, the probability increases.
It is likely that some of these bitcoin owners know each other, having probably gone into owning the cryptocurrency when there were less people involved and easier to mine.
For investors, those 1,000 or so people have outsized ability to influence bitcoin prices.
An example was in November 12, 2017, when someone moved about 25,000 bitcoins worth $159 million at the time.
It has become even more risky considering that bitcoin's isn't centralized and not based on any underlying asset, but rather on human sentiment.
Because bitcoin is a relatively new currency, regulators are having a hard time managing the industry. Unlike with securities, large investors don't have to disclose their bitcoin ownership, making many of the rules murky.
As for Satoshi Nakamoto. The "father of bitcoin", has about 1 billion bitcoins, or about 5 percent of all bitcoins in circulation. With bitcoins worth roughly $15.2 billion believed to be in Nakamoto's possession, given the current value of the cryptocurrency, Forbes included him as the 52nd richest person in the world,.