• Galaxy Research's October snapshot, as reported by CoinDesk, leaves about 11.1 million BTC (roughly 55% of the roughly 20.1 million mined) without a linked owner.
• The labeled 45% includes exchanges, ETFs, the U.S. government and the Patoshi-pattern addresses, which Galaxy lists at 1,123,658 BTC.
• The unlabeled stack may hold lost coins, early non-Patoshi mining coins, unidentified institutions or custody split across many addresses.
• Galaxy's Alex Thorn argues self-custody is widespread, but the article says the unlabeled coins need not belong to long-term individual holders.
• Treat concentration and counterparty metrics built on labeled data as lower bounds and record the vendor and snapshot date.

More than half of all bitcoin sits at addresses nobody has publicly tied to an owner, according to Galaxy Research data reported by CoinDesk on October 26, 2026. The finding lands after a period of heavy institutional buying, and it is a reminder that on-chain analytics label only part of the supply. Reading the remainder as dispersed retail savings would go further than the evidence.

What the Galaxy snapshot counts

Galaxy Research's October snapshot, as reported by CoinDesk, puts unlabeled supply at about 11.1 million BTC, roughly 55% of the roughly 20.1 million mined. The remaining 45% is tied to named entities such as exchanges, ETFs, the U.S. government and the Patoshi pattern addresses, which Galaxy lists at 1,123,658 BTC. A known owner here means Galaxy can link an address to an identifiable entity; the article gives no more formal definition.

Why unlabeled does not mean retail

The unlabeled share is a measurement limit rather than a census of holders. CoinDesk lists lost coins, early coins from other miners, unidentified institutional holdings such as funds, companies and OTC desks, and custody spread across many addresses as possible contents. Galaxy's Alex Thorn argues self-custody remains widespread, while Xapo Bank reads the gap as long-standing retail participation; the article itself says the stack need not belong to long-term individual holders.

Public trackers such as BitcoinTreasuries.net follow holdings that companies, funds and governments disclose, which is a different method from address clustering. Because each approach sees only part of the picture, totals from different vendors can diverge, and none of the sources reviewed here quantified how much of the unlabeled supply is lost versus held.

What this means for compliance and risk teams

Supply-concentration and counterparty analyses built on labeled data cover under half of all coins, so any model that assumes unlabeled coins are dispersed retail holdings carries an untested assumption. Treat label-dependent metrics as lower bounds, record the data vendor and snapshot date alongside every figure, and expect the labeled share to shift as analytics firms add new address clusters.