How many unique Bitcoin wallet users are there? Currently, there are about 2.9 million to 5.8 million

Golden Finance News - How big is the Bitcoin industry? Some time ago, a digital currency research report from the University of Cambridge in the UK was released on the Internet. The report discussed the current overview of the Bitcoin industry and the number of Bitcoin wallets. Then, an expert made an in-depth interpretation of this, claiming that he could study how to obtain the number of active Bitcoin users and Bitcoin holders from this report from the University of Cambridge in the UK.

Total number of Bitcoin wallets

The total number of Bitcoin wallets increased more than fourfold from 2013 to 2016. Image source: Golden Finance

Twenty-six bitcoin wallet companies participated in the survey, including Airbitz, Armory, Bitgo, Blockchain, Coinbase, Greenaddress, Ledger, Jaxx, Mycelium, Samourai, and Xapo.

The survey method first defines Bitcoin wallet companies.

“Any volunteer project or company that provides an independent wallet that is accessible to everyone.” is the subject of this survey.

Second, we collected data from the participating Bitcoin wallet companies on the number of downloads of Bitcoin wallet software and similar software applications; as well as estimated downloads of all digital currency wallets, not just Bitcoin wallets.

Although it is possible that a single Bitcoin wallet software download can be used by countless users to create wallets, the study used a conservative assumption: a single download is equivalent to creating a Bitcoin wallet. Other open source data on Bitcoin wallet downloads is not available.

Following these conditions (and of course more detailed requirements), the researchers found that

“It is estimated that the total number of Bitcoin wallets has more than quadrupled from 8.2 million in 2013 to nearly 35 million in 2016.”

Number of active Bitcoin wallets in use

Next, the researchers calculated the number of active (frequently used) Bitcoin wallets from the total number of Bitcoin wallets. The report points out that calculating the number of active Bitcoin wallets is a very difficult survey challenge because the number of Bitcoin wallets reported publicly does not reflect whether they are active. In addition, different companies have different definitions of "active".

Therefore, the researchers used the data provided by the Bitcoin wallet companies surveyed to roughly calculate the total number of active Bitcoin wallets. Finally, the researchers concluded that:

“The number of active Bitcoin wallets ranges from 7.5% to 30.9% of the total number of wallets.

Estimates show that the number of active wallets rose from 600,000 to 2.6 million in 2013 to between 5.8 million and 11.5 million in 2017.”

Schematic diagram of the number of active Bitcoin wallets. Image source: Golden Finance

Number of unique users of Bitcoin wallets

Then, the researchers assumed that the average Bitcoin wallet user has two Bitcoin wallets, and then conservatively calculated the number of Bitcoin wallet users from the number of active wallets. Bitcoin users who use third-party Bitcoin storage platforms can only be ignored.

The researchers wrote that the actual total number of active Bitcoin users is likely much higher than the estimate from our study, but still said that there are currently about 2.9 million to 5.8 million unique users using a Bitcoin wallet.

Number of unique users of Bitcoin wallets Image source: Golden Finance

Number of Bitcoin Holders

Finally, the researchers attempted to find the number of Bitcoin users and Bitcoin holders, however, they acknowledged that this was a more difficult task as it is likely that "one person could hold multiple brands of Bitcoin wallets."

This situation can lead to a single user being counted twice when using multiple Bitcoin wallets. Other situations make the process more complicated. "It is impossible to know exactly how many people are using Bitcoin."

But in an earlier independent study by Coinbase and Ark Invest Research, they concluded that

“More than 10 million people around the world hold significant amounts of Bitcoin.”