Over 6 million bitcoins are under visible public keys, AI attack warnings are escalating

According to Glassnode data, over 6 million Bitcoins are under publicly visible public keys on the blockchain, accounting for 31.2% of the circulating supply, which is about 5 to 6 percentage points higher than the low point in 2023. Rafael Schultze-Kraft, co-founder of Glassnode, stated that since the company's report in May, the exposed supply has increased by 222,000 BTC (approximately 18.2 billion USD), while the total Bitcoin supply during the same period has only grown by 64,000 BTC.

Among them, exchanges contributed an incremental 123,000 BTC, currently holding 1.79 million BTC that are publicly visible. There are significant differences among institutions: Coinbase has an exposure ratio of 10%, while Binance reaches as high as 83%; Fidelity holds about 375,000 BTC with an exposure ratio of only 2%, Grayscale is at 49%, Revolut is at 99%, and Robinhood is at 100%. According to this statistical method, the holdings of the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and El Salvador do not show exposure.

Public keys can be reused through addresses or become visible directly in certain Bitcoin output types, including early pay-to-public-key outputs and Taproot. A sufficiently capable quantum computer or hypothetical mathematical breakthroughs could allow attackers to derive the corresponding private keys.