• Out of 8 billion people living on the planet, only 43 million people own Bitcoin — which amounts to less than 1% of the population.
• Confusion over ‚ownership‘ and ‚creation‘ may contribute to this current trend.
• Data chart of BTC wallet address created as of Jan. 2022, source: Blockchain.com, shows 85 million unique wallets created.

As Bitcoin continues to surge in popularity, the number of people who own the cryptocurrency remains surprisingly low. Out of the 8 billion people living on the planet today, only 43 million can be said to actually ‘own’ Bitcoin, representing less than 1% of the world’s population. This is despite the fact that Bitcoin has experienced tremendous success since its inception, becoming one of the most iconic and recognizable names in the cryptocurrency space.

Given these figures, it’s worth exploring why only a fraction of the world’s population has chosen to invest in Bitcoin. One possible explanation lies in the confusion between ‘ownership’ and ‘creation’ when it comes to cryptocurrency. Before a user can invest in any form of cryptocurrency online, they must first create their own online wallet for that specific cryptocurrency. This is true for Bitcoin as well, which requires users to create a blockchain-based wallet to store their BTC.

Data from Blockchain.com, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency hosting sites, shows that by January 2022, a total of 85 million unique BTC wallets had been created. However, the unique ownership of the cryptocurrency itself (meaning that they had at least one or more BTC in their wallet) was only 43 million. This suggests that the majority of BTC wallets created were done so without any actual cryptocurrency being stored in them.

The discrepancy between the number of wallets created and the number of people actually owning Bitcoin could be attributed to a variety of factors. For one, there could be a lack of understanding about the process of investing in cryptocurrency, with many people creating wallets without actually depositing any funds. Additionally, it could be the case that some people created wallets with the intention of investing in Bitcoin, but never got around to doing so.

Whatever the reason, it is clear that the number of people who own Bitcoin is still significantly lower than many would have expected. With the cryptocurrency’s continued growth, however, it’s likely that the number of BTC owners will continue to increase in the coming years.