Over 6 million Bitcoin sit behind exposed public keys, Glassnode reports
CIE News ·
Glassnode data shows over 6 million BTC, or 31.2% of circulating supply, sit behind visible public keys. Exchanges account for 1.79 million BTC of that total.
More than 6 million Bitcoin (BTC), representing 31.2% of the circulating supply, are stored behind public keys visible onchain, according to Glassnode data reported by CoinDesk. Exposed supply grew by 222,000 BTC, worth $18.2 billion, since the analytics firm's May 2026 report, outpacing the 64,000 BTC increase in total supply over the same period.
Centralized exchanges hold 1.79 million BTC behind exposed keys after adding 123,000 BTC to that total, CoinDesk reported. Exposure levels diverge sharply across platforms: Binance has 83% of its holdings exposed, Robinhood has 100%, Revolut holds 99%, and Grayscale sits at 49%. In contrast, Coinbase shows 10% exposure, Fidelity has 2% of its roughly 375,000 BTC exposed, and government reserves in the U.S., the U.K., and El Salvador record zero exposure.
Public keys become visible through address reuse or standard output types like Taproot and early pay-to-public-key scripts, leaving them theoretically susceptible to key derivation if quantum computing or mathematical shortcuts advance. The findings follow remarks from Ethereum researcher Justin Drake, who stated that artificial intelligence could potentially breach wallet cryptography in months rather than years in a worst-case scenario.