Vitalik Buterin Not Biggest Individual Holder of Ethereum, New Data Shows

Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics platform, has revealed the biggest individual holder of Ethereum (ETH). Contrary to popular claims, new data from Arkham shows that Vitalik Buterin is not the largest individual ETH holder.

Biggest Ethereum holder in 2026

Arkham used its platform to scan blockchain data, label entities and rank who controls the largest amounts of ETH in 2026.

The platform shared the results of its research in a new article. Currently, the ETH2 Beacon Deposit Contract holds the most ETH of any wallet address, with over 82 million ETH, worth about $169 billion.

This massive stash is not owned by one person or company but is a collective staking from thousands of validators. It is the backbone of Ethereum’s security. Thus, a huge portion of ETH is intentionally locked up here rather than openly traded.

In the individual category, Ethereum presale investor Rain Lohmus owns the most ETH among all holders. 

Technically, Lohmus holds 250,000 ETH, valued at roughly $530 million, held in a wallet. However, he lost access to the private keys of his wallets long ago, so it is effectively inaccessible.

Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin comes next as the second biggest individual holder of ETH. He holds roughly 224,000 ETH, valued at approximately $480 million. Thus, the largest known individual holder of accessible ETH is Buterin.

Corporate ETH holders

In the new article, Arkham also shared the details of the top ETH-holding corporate entities. Recently, institutional investors have surged to the top rankings among ETH holders, following the rise in the popularity of Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

They provide various services to clients, such as the buying and selling of ETH, staking services and more.

As disclosed in the Arkham report, Bitmine is the biggest ETH corporate holder. Bitmine, led by Chairman Tom Lee, has declared holdings of nearly 4.7 million ETH, worth roughly $10 billion today.

Its ETH holdings include a substantial portion that the company actively stakes through its own validator network. So far, Bitmine has staked more than 50% of its ETH reserves. This aligns with its vision to accumulate a total of 5% of the Ethereum supply.

The next largest corporate Ethereum entity is BlackRock, which holds over three million ETH. BlackRock provides investment trusts that actively track the price of various crypto assets.

Currently, the firm offers the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA), for which it buys and holds ETH.