Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners

Why it matters: Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies are more easily obtainable than ever, but that hasn't changed the fact that a small percentage of users still control the majority of the market. What's more, the researchers note that their measurement of concentration is most likely an understatement since they can't rule out that some of the largest addresses are controlled by the same entity. Things are even more pronounced when looking at the concentration of miners. What's more, just 0.1 percent of miners are responsible for half of all mining output. These observations led the NBER to conclude that despite the attention Bitcoin has received over the past few years, the ecosystem is still dominated by a concentration of key players, making the ecosystem susceptible to systemic risk like a 51 percent attack, where a group of miners could take control of the majority of the network. Bitcoin is currently trading just south of $62,000 after reaching a record high of nearly $67,000 last week. Shiba Inu, a meme coin inspired by Dogecoin, is up more than 64 percent since late last week.