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Which Countries Hold the Most Bitcoin (BTC)? Government Holdings as of October 2026

The United States, China and the United Kingdom hold the most Bitcoin among government entities in BitcoinTreasuries.net's October 2026 table. Trackers disagree on the exact figures, and here is how to read them.
From TheFinanceBase Team5 min to read
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The United States holds the most Bitcoin among government entities in BitcoinTreasuries.net’s table as viewed on October 8, 2026, with 328,372 BTC. China is second with 190,000 BTC and the United Kingdom third with 61,245 BTC. Those rankings are tracker estimates of attributed holdings, not audited national reserves, and other trackers give different numbers for the same countries.

The short answer and what it measures

In the government ranking on BitcoinTreasuries.net, the top three are the United States (328,372 BTC), China (190,000 BTC) and the United Kingdom (61,245 BTC). Those counts describe Bitcoin the tracker attributes to government entities. They are not a census of all Bitcoin owned by residents, companies, funds or other entities in each country, and they are not an official statement from any government’s central bank or treasury.

Two definitions matter before you compare any list. A “government” in one tracker may be a national treasury or agency wallet, while another tracker may count only wallets it can tie to an official disclosure. Some trackers also include holdings of public officials, which are not the same thing as a government reserve.

The current ranking, with the caveats attached

The table below uses BitcoinTreasuries.net’s live government table as viewed on October 8, 2026. BTC counts are shown because they do not move with the market price the way dollar values do.

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Rank Entity as listed by BitcoinTreasuries.net BTC How to read it
1 United States 328,372 Largest in this tracker. It is a tracker attribution, not an audited public balance.
2 China 190,000 Second in this tracker. The same figure appears in CoinGecko’s current table.
3 United Kingdom 61,245 Third in this tracker. The same figure appears in CoinGecko’s current table.
4 Ukraine (holdings of public officials) 46,351 The tracker’s label is specific. These are reported holdings of public officials, not a national reserve.
5 El Salvador 7,797 Tracker-reported balance.
6 United Arab Emirates 6,420 Tracker-reported balance.
7 Kazakhstan 3,544 Tracker-reported balance.

The same table totals 645,590 BTC across 13 tracked government entities. That total includes categories and entities whose government status or attribution would need explaining, so it should not be presented as a clean sum of national reserves.

Why the trackers disagree

No single official global ledger exists. Each tracker builds its own list from blockchain wallets it has attributed to governments, plus any official disclosures it can find. The three trackers below were compared on the same October 2026 date, and they reach different numbers for the same countries.

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Country BitcoinTreasuries.net CoinGecko CorpStacking (October 8, 2026)
United States 328,372 BTC 329,693 BTC 198,000 BTC, described as an independent blockchain-analysis estimate from wallets attributed to the government, not a figure the government published
China 190,000 BTC 190,000 BTC Not included in the six governments that CorpStacking lists
United Kingdom 61,245 BTC 61,245 BTC 61,000 BTC
El Salvador 7,797 BTC Different balance; the exact figure is not stated in the source used here 7,798 BTC
North Korea and Bhutan Listed Different balances; the exact figures are not stated in the source used here Not stated
Totals 645,590 BTC across 13 entities 619,463 BTC across 13 governments Six governments listed

The gaps come from four sources of difference:

  • Wallet attribution changes. When an analytics firm reassigns a wallet to a different owner, the country total moves even though no Bitcoin has changed hands.
  • Seized and forfeited assets. Bitcoin held in custody or subject to legal process may be counted by one tracker and left out by another.
  • Officials and state-linked entities. Some trackers include holdings of public officials or state-controlled wallets, which are hard to verify.
  • Disclosure standards. CorpStacking includes a government only when readers can check an official disclosure or attributable wallets. Other trackers apply looser or different rules.

When two lists disagree, describe the difference instead of averaging the numbers. A midpoint between a tracker estimate and an official disclosure would not correspond to any real balance.

What U.S. policy confirms, and what it does not

Executive Order 14233, dated March 6, 2025, established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. It is funded with Bitcoin held by the Treasury that has been finally forfeited in criminal or civil proceedings, subject to stated exceptions, and it directed agencies to review whether they could transfer qualifying government Bitcoin into the reserve. The order sets out what the reserve is and which assets qualify. It does not state a current balance, so it cannot confirm any tracker’s total.

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The order includes this sentence on how deposited Bitcoin is to be handled: “Government BTC deposited into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve shall not be sold and shall be maintained as reserve assets of the United States utilized to meet governmental objectives in accordance with applicable law.”

That sentence describes intent for qualifying forfeited Bitcoin. It does not tell you how much Bitcoin the government holds, how much of the tracker figure is forfeited, or whether attributed wallets are all under that order.

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Older figures you may still see

The 2025 CoinGecko Bitcoin Report showed the United States at 208,109 BTC, China at 190,000 BTC and the United Kingdom at 61,245 BTC. It also listed North Korea at 13,562 BTC, Bhutan at 10,769 BTC and El Salvador at 6,333 BTC. These numbers are from a 2025 report and are not a current update. Articles that quote them without a date are out of date, and the difference from the 2026 U.S. figure above reflects changes in attribution over time as well as changes in holdings.

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How to check a holdings claim before you repeat it

  1. Confirm the source name and the snapshot date printed on the page.
  2. Check whether the entity is a government, a public official, or a state-linked wallet, and whether the label says so.
  3. Look for an official disclosure or a stated attribution method. If the figure is an analytics estimate, say so.
  4. Report the BTC count first. Add a dollar value only with its own date, since it changes with the market.
  5. If two trackers differ, report both figures with their dates instead of choosing the larger one.

What is and is not established

  • Established: the United States, China and the United Kingdom rank first through third in the current BitcoinTreasuries.net government table, as of October 8, 2026.
  • Established: the U.S. total is disputed. CoinGecko and BitcoinTreasuries.net give figures around 330,000 BTC, while CorpStacking estimates 198,000 BTC from attributed wallets.
  • Established: Ukraine’s entry in BitcoinTreasuries.net covers public officials’ holdings, not a government reserve.
  • Not established: a globally complete or independently audited inventory of government Bitcoin. No such inventory was found in the sources compared here.

Governments do not publish a single, verified world total, so any country ranking is a snapshot of tracker estimates. Read it as a comparison of who the trackers attribute Bitcoin to, not as a count of what each state controls.

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Dollar values for these holdings are left out because they change with the market price and would need a dated reference point of their own.

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