Vitalik Buterin isn’t the largest individual holder of Ethereum—new data shows

Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics platform, has just released a list of the largest holders of Ethereum (ETH). Contrary to popular views, Arkham’s new data shows that Vitalik Buterin is not the largest holder of personal ETH.

Arkham used its platform to scan on-chain data, label entities, and rank who is controlling the largest amount of ETH in 2026. Based on the results released, the ETH2 Beacon Deposit Contract currently holds the most ETH among all wallet addresses, with more than 82 million ETH, worth about $169 billion.

This massive ETH allocation does not belong to a single individual or company, but is a collective staking amount from thousands of validators. It is the security backbone of Ethereum, so most of these ETH are intentionally locked rather than freely traded on the market.

In the individual category, the presale investor Rain Lohmus holds the largest amount of ETH among all holders. Technically, Lohmus holds 250,000 ETH, worth about $530 million, in a single wallet. However, he lost access to the private key long ago, so this ETH is effectively unusable.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin comes right after as the second-largest personal ETH holder. He is holding about 224,000 ETH, worth approximately $480 million. Therefore, when considering only the amount of ETH that can be reached, Buterin is still the largest individual holder among the available group of holders.

In the enterprise segment, Arkham also announced the entities holding the largest amounts of ETH. A recent wave of institutional investors has pushed many names to the top of the ETH ranking tables, especially after Ethereum ETF funds became more popular.

Bitmine, led by Chairman Tom Lee, is the enterprise holding the most ETH. The company has disclosed holdings of nearly 4.7 million ETH, worth about $10 billion at current prices. A significant portion of this is actively staked by the company through its own validator network. To date, Bitmine has staked more than 50% of its reserve ETH, aligning with the goal of accumulating 5% of Ethereum’s total supply.

The second-largest enterprise Ethereum entity is BlackRock, with more than 3 million ETH. BlackRock offers investment trust products that track the prices of various different crypto assets. Currently, the company provides the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA), through which it buys and holds ETH.

Source: X / Arkham