Whales are buying BTC crazily. Who are the top ten companies holding the most BTC?

Bitcoin trading firms BlackRock and MARA Holdings purchased a total of 9,173 Bitcoins, while an unknown whale acquired 600 Bitcoins as the price of Bitcoin fell to $92,957 on December 5.

BlackRock bought as many as 7,750 bitcoins as buyers snapped up shares of its spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, bringing the firm’s total bitcoin holdings to $48.9 billion at current prices, according to Arkham data.

“The fastest growing ETF ever,” said Thomas Fahrer, founder of Apollo, a cryptocurrency markets firm that tracks the spot bitcoin ETF market.

Source: Thomas Fahrer

Meanwhile, bitcoin miner MARA Holdings purchased 1,423 bitcoins worth $139.5 million in four transactions between December 5 and 6.

Prior to purchasing Bitcoin, MARA completed a second $850 million convertible note offering, which the company said it would use to accumulate more Bitcoin.

According to Arkham Intelligence, MARA currently holds 22,108 bitcoins worth $2.17 billion, a massive 162% increase from the same period last month.

In the third quarter, MARA shifted to a new fiscal policy of “retaining all” the Bitcoin it mined and employing a range of capital market tools to grow its Bitcoin reserves — similar to MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin playbook.

Meanwhile, Lookonchain noted in another X post that an anonymous crypto whale also appeared to take advantage of the Bitcoin price crash on Dec. 5 and bought 600 BTC worth $58.85 million.

Data from BitInfoCharts shows that before the first transaction on November 24, the whale’s wallet address “bc1pg…u0pk3” held no Bitcoin.

Just a day earlier, medical technology company Semler Scientific bought 303 Bitcoins at an average price of $96,779 on December 4 — just hours before Bitcoin surpassed the $100,000 milestone.

The company’s latest purchase brings its holdings to 1,873 bitcoins, valued at $182.8 million.

According to data from 67 public companies tracked by Bitcoin Treasury, Bitcoin holding companies like Semler Scientific hold a total of 527,026 Bitcoins, which represents 2.66% of Bitcoin’s current supply.

The ten largest publicly traded Bitcoin holders. Source: Bitcoin Treasuries

The government holds 2,856 bitcoins, while asset managers and private companies hold 1,253 bitcoins and 410,418 bitcoins, respectively.