Individual Ownership Peaked in 2024 and What Comes Next for Bitcoin
In this episode, Nik sits down with Sam Baker, Research at River, to break down River's second annual Bitcoin adoption report, covering how institutional ownership, registered investment advisors, sovereign holdings, and small business adoption all accelerated in 2025 despite price weakness. Sam explains why individual ownership likely peaked in 2024, why RIAs managing $146 trillion hold less than one basis point in Bitcoin, and what the ownership distribution trend implies for the decade ahead. Nik connects the data to his framework of Bitcoin as a tool of American economic statecraft in the US-China competition for global capital dominance.
The Bitcoin Layer · Sam Baker, Nik bhatia
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Show Notes
In this episode, Nik sits down with Sam Baker, Research at River, to break down River's second annual Bitcoin adoption report, covering how institutional ownership, registered investment advisors, sovereign holdings, and small business adoption all accelerated in 2025 despite price weakness. Sam explains why individual ownership likely peaked in 2024, why RIAs managing $146 trillion hold less than one basis point in Bitcoin, and what the ownership distribution trend implies for the decade ahead. Nik connects the data to his framework of Bitcoin as a tool of American economic statecraft in the US-China competition for global capital dominance.
Episode links:
- https://river.com/learn/files/river-bitcoin-adoption-report-2026.pdf
- https://x.com/River/status/2026322299595432323?s=20
- https://btcmap.org/
- https://x.com/macromule
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