Despite all the talk of democratizing finance, a handful of rich investors apparently hold huge amounts of the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin. The data that the National Bureau of Economic Research has recently released shows that some 10,000 individual investors control around a third of all the Bitcoin in circulation.

The Top 1,000 Cryptocurrency Investors Are Popularly Known as Whales and Control Around 3 Million Bitcoin Tokens

This new research on the Bitcoin market expands on prior studies and distinguishes between intermediaries like cryptocurrency traders, exchanges, and brokers who process vast amounts of the cryptocurrency and individually-held accounts. While intermediaries control some 5.5 million Bitcoin and individuals have around 8.5 million Bitcoin, the top 1,000 investors own around 3 million of all Bitcoin tokens. Still, it is difficult to determine the degree of control those investors have, as there is no reliable record of who is actually behind those accounts.

Individuals Who Accumulated Huge Bitcoin Stockpiles Early On Are Considered to Be Among the Top Owners of the Cryptocurrency

It is believed that the people who own the accounts with the most Bitcoin tokens are individuals who managed to mine huge stockpiles of Bitcoin early on and kept getting richer in the years that followed. Still, most crypto enthusiasts seem to not care too much about the top players and their manipulations, so long as they keep their own financial trajectories going up in a similar fashion.

The report identified that scams and criminal activity involving the Bitcoin network are indeed substantial, but perhaps not quite on the same scale that authorities have claimed. The authors cautioned that the measurement of concentration is very likely an understatement because the possibility that the largest addresses are controlled by the same person could not be ruled out.

Apparently, the miners who use computers to farm and generate new Bitcoin tokens are even more concentrated. It seems the top 10% of miners are controlling some 90% of the mining capacity, and of them, just 0.1% control 50%. This tracks with the ever-increasing difficulty of mining new Bitcoins over time. It scales in terms of computational demand and has resulted in the appearance of large-scale Bitcoin farms that use huge stockpiles of special hardware to generate new units.

It’s all too easy to overlook the titans that dominate the technological landscape. After all, several have increased by thousands of percentage points in the last decade alone. However, overlooking them may be a mistake. Companies that have risen to dominance in an industry typically maintain that position for an extended period — even in technology. Here’s more information on which technology stocks investors should monitor closely and eventually purchase.

Top 3 Profitable Stocks

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE), and Nvidia are the three best technology stocks to buy right now (NASDAQ: NVDA). While they are not exactly unknown to Wall Street, they are all massive, well-capitalized innovators poised to dominate in the years ahead. Here is why:

#1. Apple: The Company That Transformed the Mobile Device Industry

It’s pointless to introduce a company with a market capitalization approaching $2.5 trillion and a smartphone with a 64 percent market share in the United States. As the company unveils a new lineup of phones, tablets, and accessories this week, it’s clear that the company is a force to be reckoned with.

When it migrated from computers to smartphones, it transformed the mobile device industry. And it has expanded its ecosystem of services to encompass consumers, including video, audio, and payments. Customers adore everything. According to a survey conducted by mobile phone retailer sellcell.com, the iPhone 12 increased brand loyalty to 92 percent. That being said, Apple’s stocks are worth buying.

However, the company has recently made some unwelcome headlines. In a high-profile ruling, a judge upheld the legality of Apple’s App Store but stated that the company cannot force people to pay for items through the marketplace. This will eat into the company’s 30% commission. This cut is included in Apple’s $64.7 billion in service revenue over the last 12 months. It’s roughly the same as the combined revenue of Spotify, Visa, and Netflix.

#2. Nvidia: A True Giant in the GPU Manufacturing Industry

Nvidia is an extraordinary story of a company at the cutting edge of one industry leveraging its technology to leap to the forefront of emerging fields. It began with the best graphics cards available for personal computer gaming. These applications necessitated a great deal of computational horsepower. This resulted in a graphical processing unit (GPU) architecture that is now the de facto standard in a number of the most promising technologies. These include, but are not limited to, artificial intelligence and data science, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and virtual reality.

Both its financial results and the price of its stocks reflect the company’s industry leadership. Revenue has increased 337 percent since 2016, while net income has increased by 1,050 percent. Wall Street, on the other hand, has not fallen behind. It is factoring in a significant amount of future growth. In that time, the stock has increased by 2,600 percent, reaching a market capitalization of $556 billion.

#3. Adobe: The Go-To Software of Every Creator!

Adobe is best known for its software, which enables creators to design and deliver interactive digital experiences. Over the last 12 months, it has boosted revenue to $14.4 billion. This is a 240 percent increase over the last decade, with net income increasing by 570 percent. As of the six months ended in June, nearly 90% of that revenue was derived from subscriptions. The company operates in three segments: digital media and experience, publishing and advertising, and publishing and advertising. Last year, they accounted for 76%, 23%, and 1% of revenue, respectively.

Digital media comprises both creative and document cloud products. The creative cloud is a collection of over 20 apps, including Photoshop and Illustrator — two indispensable tools in the toolkit of any creative professional. The document cloud enables scanning, sharing, editing, and signing of documents from any location, at any time. The digital experience segment is intended to serve as the backbone of online businesses. Although sales growth slowed during the pandemic, the stocks are up 96% year to date.