Glassnode co-founder counts 6.26 million BTC with exposed public keys

Nearly a third of all Bitcoin now sits behind public keys that anyone can read on the blockchain.

On October 8, 2026, Glassnode co-founder Rafael Schultze-Kraft put the figure at more than 6.26 million BTC, or 31.2% of circulating supply. That number has been climbing faster than Bitcoin itself, which is the part that deserves a second look.

Back in May 2026, the same metric stood at 6.04 million BTC, equal to 30.2% of supply. Five months later, the exposed balance is 222,000 BTC larger.

Over that same stretch, Bitcoin's total supply grew by just 64,000 BTC. Exposure is expanding more than three times as fast as new coins are being created.

So the increase is not simply new Bitcoin landing in visible addresses. Existing coins are moving into a state where their public keys are on display.

Every Bitcoin wallet runs on a key pair: a private key that authorizes spending and a public key derived from it. Many address formats keep the public key hidden behind a hash until the owner spends from that address. Once revealed, the key stays on the public ledger permanently.

The biggest single contributor to the jump is the exchange sector. Trading platforms added 123,000 BTC to their exposed holdings since May, which accounts for more than half of the total increase.