3% of the global Bitcoin supply, approximately 600,000 coins, is quietly dispersed across digital wallets around the world. The identity of the private key holders of these assets remains a mystery, and a financial covert war over this massive fortune is unfolding.

Where does this enormous "shadow reserve" come from? According to publicly disclosed data from analyst Serenity, there are mainly three formation paths.

First: Gold liquidation. Between 2018 and 2020, a certain country exported about $2.7 billion worth of gold through over-the-counter transactions and converted the proceeds into BTC during Bitcoin's low-price periods (average cost around $5,000). If these assets had been held until now, their market value would have expanded to between $45 billion and $50 billion.

Second: Oil settlement. After the "Oil Coin" experiment failed, the country's oil exporters were required to settle using Tether (USDT) to bypass U.S. sanctions. By December 2025, about 80% of oil revenues are received in USDT. But here’s the problem—the issuer of USDT has control over frozen addresses, which is a significant risk. What’s the smart move? Immediately convert stablecoins into Bitcoin. The assets accumulated between 2023 and 2025 are now quite valuable.

The specifics of the third path are still under observation, but it is speculated that, besides official reserves, there may also be hidden channels involving mining income.

The key question is: who actually holds these 600,000 Bitcoins? Where are the private keys? When will they enter the market? What impact would a large-scale sell-off have on the entire Bitcoin ecosystem? These questions are spreading across the global financial circle.