Who Owns USDC: Top USDC Holders (2026)

The largest individual USDC wallet is controlled by Sky (formerly MakerDAO). The wallet controls over 3.7B USDC, meaning it is worth over $3.7 billion. The wallet is labelled as Sky (MakerDAO): LITE PSM USDC A POCKET on Arkham Intel. PSM stands for Peg Stability Module which implies that Sky uses this USDC wallet to facilitate 1:1 swaps with its own stablecoins (USDS and Dai). 

When looking at entities, rather than individual wallets, the largest USDC-holding entity on Arkham Intel is the centralized exchange Binance. Binance controls nearly 10.2B USDC ($10.2B). A large chunk of Binance’s USDC is in their SAFU fund for emergency situations where user funds need to be protected.

What is USDC?

USDC is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. It is issued by Circle and operates across multiple blockchains. Because of its price stability, USDC is key to decentralized finance (DeFi), centralized exchange liquidity, and, increasingly, digital payments through crypto payment rails. 

USDC is the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, with a supply of $78B. USDT, provided by Tether, is the largest stablecoin with a supply of $190B. 

USDC’s widespread adoption has produced several USDC crypto whales, primarily consisting of exchanges, smart contract bridges, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the entities and wallets which hold the most USDC, based on verified on-chain data from Arkham Intel.

Summary

• Binance is the largest entity holder of USDC, in possession of around $10.2 billion, representing 13.3% of the total supply (at the time of writing).

• Coinbase is the second-largest entity with holdings of $8.8 billion (11.5% of supply).

• When it comes to individual wallets, Sky (MakerDAO) holds the single largest address, containing $3.7 billion USDC in its Peg Stability Module (PSM).

• Layer 2 networks and decentralized exchanges hold massive reserves, with Hyperliquid holding $3.2 billion and Polygon holding $1.1 billion.

• Circle, the primary issuer of USDC, holds $2.6 billion across its own corporate and proxy deposit wallets.

Largest USDC Wallets

The Arkham Intel platform groups wallets associated with one person or organisation into “entities”. Entities are useful because large holders rarely keep all their assets in a single wallet for security and operational reasons. By grouping all associated wallets into a single entity, the Intel Platform provides a much more accurate and complete picture of that entity's total holdings and influence in the crypto market.

However, it is also possible to look at individual wallets, separated from their labelled entity. Below is a table of the top individual wallets. The top wallet belongs to a DeFi protocol, followed by an L2 bridge, while the rest are dominated by Binance and Circle proxy contracts.

Top Holders From Each Category

These are the top USDC entities from each of the main entity categories: exchanges, DeFi protocols, L2 networks, and issuers.

By grouping wallets by entity, the sheer dominance of centralized exchanges in the stablecoin market becomes immediately apparent.

Exchanges

As mentioned, Binance is the biggest USDC-holding entity and the biggest USDC-holding CEX, commanding a massive $10.2 billion. This is spread across various cold wallets, hot wallets, and SingleOwnerMSCA proxy contracts (Binance’s Proof-of-Reserves wallets).

Coinbase is the second-largest entity with $8.8 billion in USDC. Coinbase co-founded the Centre Consortium that originally launched the token, and natively integrated it into its Base layer and exchange offerings.

OKX (1.1B) and Bybit (870M) are also large exchange holders of USDC. Cold wallets controlled by exchanges custody client deposits and generally do not represent the exchange’s corporate ownership, but rather the collective trading liquidity of their millions of users.

DeFi Protocols and Bridges

Unlike Bitcoin, which is largely held in static cold storage, USDC is highly active in Decentralized Finance.

‍Sky (formerly MakerDAO) holds nearly $4 billion, the vast majority of which is locked in its Peg Stability Module (PSM). The PSM allows users to swap USDC for DAI and USDS at a 1:1 rate, meaning Sky holds massive amounts of USDC to back their stablecoins.

Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetual exchange operating on its own Layer 1, holds nearly $3.3 billion in its bridge contract. This reflects the large amount of user capital deposited into the Hyperliquid ecosystem for trading margin. 

Similarly, Polygon holds $1.1 billion in its bridge contracts, representing the USDC bridged by users from Ethereum mainnet to the Polygon network.

Issuers

Circle, the financial technology company that issues USDC, is the fifth-largest entity holder, with $2.6 billion verified on-chain.

As the issuer, Circle manages the minting and burning of USDC based on fiat inflows and outflows. The balances held in their proxy and core deposit wallets represent operational liquidity, funds pending settlement, and reserves used to maintain the 1:1 redemption of USDC for fiat US dollars.

Unidentified Wallets

There are also several large USDC whales that are unidentified. In fact, the 12th largest USDC wallet is an unidentified entity with over $692 million in USDC. 

Conclusion

What began as a novel way to move fiat value on-chain has evolved into the backbone of digital asset liquidity. The appeal of holding USDC emerges from its price stability and integration across nearly every major blockchain, decentralized application, and centralized exchange.

Unlike Bitcoin, USDC does not have a maximum supply cap. Its supply expands and contracts directly based on market demand and the corresponding fiat dollars deposited into Circle's reserves. Monitoring these top holders provides crucial insight into the flow of capital in crypto, as major spikes in exchange or DeFi stablecoin balances often precede significant market movements.