Ethereum continues to serve as a foundational layer for decentralized applications, smart contracts, and tokenized assets. As the ecosystem matures, understanding the distribution of ETH among top holders is essential for gauging liquidity concentration, market risk, and institutional involvement.
This article presents the latest onchain data identifying the top Ethereum holders in 2025, including a breakdown of the top 10 wallets by ETH balance. It also outlines how users can analyze the top 100 ETH holders and explore deeper onchain ownership insights using Nansen.
Top 10 Ethereum Holders by Balance
The following data, sourced from Nansen’s Token God Mode, highlights the largest ETH-holding entities based on onchain wallet labeling:
- Ethereum 2.0 (Beacon Deposit Contract) – 59,753,653 ETH (49.53%)
- Coinbase – 4,930,015 ETH (4.09%)
- Binance – 4,232,584 ETH (3.51%)
- Bitfinex – 3,284,376 ETH (2.72%)
- Wrapped Ether (WETH Token) – 2,796,038 ETH (2.32%)
- Coinbase Prime – 1,819,815 ETH (1.51%)
- Base (Bridge) – 1,712,220 ETH (1.42%)
- Robinhood – 1,655,419 ETH (1.37%)
- Upbit – 1,361,084 ETH (1.13%)
- Grayscale ETF – 1,200,587 ETH (1.00%)
This list showcases a mix of staking contracts, centralized exchanges, institutional custodians, and Layer-2 bridges. The Ethereum 2.0 staking contract remains the dominant holder, reflecting the protocol’s transition to proof-of-stake.
Who Are the Top Holders of Ethereum?
The top ETH holders fall into several categories:
- Staking Infrastructure: The Beacon Deposit Contract is used by validators to secure the network via Ethereum’s proof-of-stake mechanism.
- Exchanges and Custodians: Coinbase, Binance, Bitfinex, Robinhood, and Upbit act as custodians for retail and institutional investors.
- Institutional Entities: Grayscale and Coinbase Prime reflect growing institutional interest in Ethereum as an asset.
- Smart Contracts: Wrapped ETH is used across DeFi protocols and represents ETH converted into an ERC-20 compatible format.
- Bridges: Base and Arbitrum hold ETH to facilitate cross-chain interoperability with Layer-2 ecosystems.
These holders collectively shape Ethereum’s liquidity, governance, and scaling pathways.
Why Exchanges and Smart Contracts Hold Significant ETH
Exchanges and custodians play a central role in the Ethereum economy by aggregating user assets, operating liquidity pools, and facilitating institutional custody. Smart contracts such as WETH and bridge contracts like Base or Arbitrum lock ETH for utility and capital efficiency.
This dynamic explains why such entities dominate the list of top holders.
How to Track the Top 100 and Top 1000 ETH Holders
For a more comprehensive view of ETH ownership, Nansen provides a suite of tools that help users analyze the top 100, top 1000, or any custom segment of wallet addresses and entities.
1. Wallet Profiler
Offers granular data on wallet activity, holdings, counterparties, and token exposure.
2. Token God Mode
Allows filtering by wallet balance, transaction count, and wallet label. Users can distinguish between individual wallets, smart contracts, and exchange addresses.
3. Smart Money Dashboard
Highlights wallets with strong onchain performance or consistent gains across market cycles.
4. Entity on Balances Tab
Users can view the top entities holding ETH by switching from Address to Entity view in Token God Mode. This offers a consolidated view of institutional and protocol-level ETH holdings, including exchanges, custodians, ETFs, and bridges.
This level of transparency allows market participants to monitor ETH flows across the most influential wallets and organizations.
Conclusion
ETH ownership remains heavily concentrated among staking contracts, centralized exchanges, and institutional custodians. This reflects both the maturity of Ethereum’s infrastructure and the evolving nature of its capital flows.
By using tools like Token God Mode, Wallet Profiler, and other Nansen features, users can gain deep visibility into Ethereum’s most influential holders.
Whether analyzing market trends, researching institutional flows, or tracking onchain liquidity, Nansen provides the data and context needed to understand Ethereum’s economic landscape.
Explore Ethereum’s top holders and gain deeper onchain insights on Nansen today!
