Individual Ownership Peaked in 2024 and What Comes Next for Bitcoin

About this episode

Nik and guest Sam Baker discuss the findings of River's Bitcoin adoption report and the implications for individual ownership and institutional investment in 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.

People in this episode

Host: Nik

Guest: Sam Baker

Topics covered

• Bitcoin adoption
• individual ownership
• institutional ownership
• economic statecraft
• US-China competition
• investment advisors

Keywords

• Bitcoin
• adoption report
• institutional ownership
• investment advisors
• economic statecraft
• US-China competition
• ownership distribution

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: River, RIAs

Places: US, China

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