River, a client-first Bitcoin-only financial institution, revealed that the number of public companies holding Bitcoin had surged by 139% since 2023. The firm also noted that although the number of public companies holding BTC increased, its adoption as a treasury asset remained below 1%.
River compared Bitcoin’s adoption to that of the internet and argued that BTC’s adoption was at a fraction of its full potential for savings and payments. The firm indicated that 13 organizations were now funding the development of the virtual currency protocol, with three new entrants in 2024.
Number of public companies holding BTC has surged 139% since 2024
INSIGHT: The number of public companies holding #Bitcoin has surged 139% since 2023, yet adoption remains below 1%.
We’re still in the first chapter of corporate adoption. pic.twitter.com/h86rRSmiK2
— Bitcoin For Corporations (@BitcoinForCorps) February 26, 2025
River found that businesses had accumulated over 1,000 BTC daily since January 2024. The firm also acknowledged that public companies holding virtual assets surged by 80% in 2024. The number of public companies that have held Bitcoin since 2023 has also increased by 139%. The financial company argued that the growth happened despite adopting the digital asset as a treasury asset that remained below 1% of all publicly traded firms.
“An increasing number of companies are using Bitcoin as their primary treasury asset and the main vehicle for holding retained earnings, rather than distributing earnings through dividends or share buybacks.”
-River Financial.
The company stated that BTC balances have remained on third-party custodians rather than flowing to self-custody despite balances held on exchanges falling by over 20% since 2022. River believes that the digital assets held by known third parties will increase with heightened demand for ETFs and similar products.
River estimated that third parties, including businesses, governments, ETFs, and wrapped BTC, held around 8.17M BTC (38.9%) of the total supply. Coinbase holds roughly 2.37M BTC (11.3% of supply) between exchange and institutional businesses.
As of December 31, 2024, River reported that individuals possessed 69.4% of the total Bitcoin supply, roughly 14.56M BTC. Satoshi had the second-largest ownership, with 968K BTC (4.6%) of the total supply. Businesses also owned 4.4% of the total virtual asset supply, around 914K BTC.
The firm also indicated that Funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) owned slightly over 6% (1.29M) of the total digital asset supply. Governments possessed 1.4% of the total BTC supply, around 297K BTC.
The financial firm also noted that adopting virtual currency in 2025 was at roughly 3% of its full potential. The 3% estimate was derived from BTC’s total addressable market (TAM), which remained below 1% of its estimated TAM. The forecast also included institutional underallocation, which saw U.S.-based investment advisors collectively allocate just 0.006% of their portfolios of BTC.
Global Bitcoin ownership remained under 4% despite 14% of Americans owning some BTC. The firm argued that there was still significant room for adoption by individuals who may lack sufficient knowledge about the digital currency’s value proposition or access to trustworthy BTC custodians.
River noted that 94% of all 21 million BTCs have been mined, and the remaining 6% will be mined over the next ~115 years. The firm also acknowledged that Bitcoin’s monetary issuance decreased from ~90 C to ~450 BTC/day after the April 2024 halving. Last year’s BTC supply growth was 0.8%, lower than all major fiat currencies and gold.
River expects institutions to increase their BTC exposure with ETF adoption
According to the firm, business BTC adoption will go mainstream in the medium term as legal and accounting hurdles fade and successful corporate precedents grow. The financial company acknowledged that individuals drove previous bull cycles, but ETFs and businesses were the primary digital asset accumulators in 2024. River noted that digital asset ETFs added 519K BTC in 2024, and businesses added 374K BTC last year, 31% more than in 2020.
The firm reported that 52% of the top 25 Hedge funds and Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) owned BTC ETFs. RIAs and hedge funds managed over $135 trillion in the U.S. alone.
Only 225 of the 30,000+ existing hedge funds owned virtual asset ETFs, a total of 295K BTC (27.3%) of the total BTC ETFs. The firm also disclosed that only 3% of all U.S. RIAs held Bitcoin ETFs, slightly over 7% (77K BTC) of the total digital currency ETFs. Asset managers also controlled 1.9% (20K BTC) of 1.08M U.S. BTC ETFs.
The firm also highlighted that 21,700 reachable nodes comprised the virtual currency’s network, which grew by 11% in 2024. There are also 115 active Bitcoin Core contributors, with two more added since 2023. According to River, there were 2,500 BTC Core code commits last year, with an 8.5% increase year-over-year. Bitcoin Core has a 98% market share among node implementations.
River recorded over 1.3 million virtual currencies compromised on exchanges through hacks, internal theft, and bankruptcies. It also estimated that 1.6 million BTC was lost through self-custody, and only 10% of losses occurred after 2015.
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