How Bitcoin "grew" with technologies: a guide to the modern ecosystem
Over the 16 years since its launch, Bitcoin has evolved from a "toy" for a handful of enthusiasts into an asset owned by public companies and even some governments. As of July 2025, the total number of Bitcoin holders exceeds 300 million people worldwide.
Development of the Bitcoin ecosystem
In its early stages, Bitcoin was merely a decentralized network used only for transferring cryptocurrency. Now, it is one of the leading DeFi ecosystems in the digital asset market.
According to DeFi Llama as of July 2025, the Bitcoin ecosystem ranks among the top four in the decentralized finance market, with a total value locked (TVL) of $6.93 billion. By this metric, Bitcoin is only slightly behind BNB Smart Chain, which has a TVL of $7.14 billion.
The Bitcoin world has expanded so much that it has given rise to a separate segment called Bitcoin Finance (BTCFi) — a DeFi ecosystem built on the Bitcoin protocol and using BTC as one of its core assets.
Bitcoin became part of the DeFi market due to the emergence of Layer 2 networks, sidechains, and restaking protocols like Babylon Protocol and Lombard Finance. These not only scaled the main blockchain but also expanded its functionality, for example, through the introduction of smart contracts.
Thanks to BTCFi protocols, the following on-chain operations have become available to BTC holders within the Bitcoin ecosystem:
- Lending on lending platforms;
- Staking, including liquid staking;
- Restaking;
- Trading on decentralized exchanges (DEXes);
- Yield farming (also known as farming).
The leading protocol in the "world of Bitcoin" is the Babylon Protocol. As of July 2025, this DeFi protocol holds $5.12 billion in TVL, accounting for nearly 74% of the entire Bitcoin ecosystem's locked value.
The Bitcoin ecosystem also includes:
- Lombard Finance ($1.63B TVL) — a liquid staking protocol built on top of the Babylon Protocol. It expands income opportunities for Bitcoin holders;
- Threshold Network ($662M TVL) — a decentralized protocol enabling the use of Bitcoin in other ecosystems as a wrapped token, launched in 2022;
- Solv Protocol ($543M TVL) — a decentralized financial platform combining Bitcoin and DeFi to broaden BTC's use cases;
- Lightning Network ($440M TVL) — a Layer 2 payment network built on the Bitcoin blockchain for instant and nearly free BTC transfers;
- Bedrock ($204M TVL) — the first liquid staking protocol for Bitcoin across various blockchain networks;
- Allyer Farm ($120M TVL) — a Bitcoin-based farming protocol using BTC;
- Liquid Network and Rootstock — sidechains introducing smart contracts based on the Bitcoin protocol and enabling tokenized assets, including stablecoins;
- Stacks — a Layer 2 scaling solution for the Bitcoin network that synchronizes with mainnet blocks via the Proof-of-Transfer (PoX) consensus mechanism.
Who are the largest Bitcoin holders in the world?
According to Fidelity Digital Assets, by mid-2025, at least 50 publicly traded companies held a total of over 900,000 BTC (~$106 billion as of July 2025), which represents 4.5% of Bitcoin's total supply (19.89M BTC).
The largest corporate holder of Bitcoin is Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), which holds nearly 600,000 BTC valued at approximately $71 billion.
Other top corporate holders of Bitcoin include:
- Robinhood Markets — 136,755 BTC;
- Marathon Digital Holdings — ~44,400 BTC;
- Riot Platforms (formerly Riot Blockchain) — ~17,400 BTC;
- Tesla — 11,509 BTC;
- Block (formerly Square) — over 9,000 BTC;
- GameStop — 4,710 BTC.
As of January 2025, various governments collectively owned around 471,000 BTC, valued at over $55 billion, or approximately 2.5% of the total Bitcoin supply. The largest government holders are:
- USA — 212,000 BTC;
- China — 194,000 BTC;
- United Kingdom — 61,000 BTC.
However, according to River, as of July 2025, most of the world's Bitcoin is held by individual investors. The company estimates they control about 14 million BTC, worth approximately $1.65 trillion — that's roughly 70% of Bitcoin's total supply.
How much Bitcoin exists in the world?
As of July 2025, a total of 19.89 million BTC has been mined — this is nearly 95% of Bitcoin's maximum supply. Taking into account the estimated 15–20% of lost coins, only ~15.9M to ~16.9M BTC remain accessible on the market.
In total, long-term investors hold around 74% of all existing Bitcoin, or approximately 15.3 million BTC. That means only about 600,000 to 1,600,000 BTC are available in active circulation.