The 5 Levels of Bitcoin wealth Explained: From 0.01 - 100, Here’s where you Stand

So, these five glasses explain why some people holding Bitcoin retire early and why some of you watching this video sadly might never retire. These are the five levels of Bitcoin wealth. And understanding what glass or level of wealth that you're currently at today will tell us whether retiring is inevitable or whether you've got some serious work to do in 2026. Now again, this won't be just another speculation or just another retire early video filmed in a parked car or on a parked bench. I've actually retired early. I've made a million dollars by 28. And that's largely due to understanding these different levels of Bitcoin wealth. So the first level of Bitcoin wealth, you own more than zero Bitcoin. If you do own more than zero Bitcoin and you're approaching owning 1% of a Bitcoin, you actually own more Bitcoin than 99.96% of humanity. You are technically and literally more rare than being a millionaire. So this is signified by this big marshmallow in our first glass for today's demonstrative purposes. These big marshmallows, they signify 1% of a Bitcoin. So that is how much our first level of Bitcoin wealth is. If we have a look at my favorite website, this is the Bitcoin rich list. Now what I've done is I've added those top four rows together. And shockingly, when you add all of those rows together, we can see that the people who hold less than 1% of a Bitcoin, but more than zero Bitcoin, they actually hold less than half a% of the total Bitcoin supply, but they make up somewhere around 40 million addresses. This is actually more than 76.2% of all of the Bitcoin addresses in existence. Again, this kind of goes back to highlighting how interesting and important a paro's principal distribution is. A normal prao's principal distribution says that 80% of the people will give you 20% of the results. But here in Bitcoin, wealth concentration, it's a lot more concentrated with 78% of the people accounting for 0.5% of the wealth. But you guys don't care about Paro's principles distributions. You guys want to know how much Bitcoin do I need to retire? So, if you are in the first level of Bitcoin wealth, you've got a little bit less than 0.01 Bitcoin. Let's run the numbers to see how early you can retire. So, this is my favorite little calculator. Credit where credit is due. It's called when moon. We can see that if you have 1% of a Bitcoin, so again, everybody in this first level, they're close to 1%, but they're not quite there. if they were able to get their hands on around $1,000 worth of Bitcoin today. This is actually not dollars. This is Peruvian Solus, another version of coin, fiat currency. But if you got to $1,000 of Bitcoin, 0.01 Bitcoin, and if you assume that Bitcoin is going to continue appreciating at 50% per year, that's a compounded annual growth rate, a 50% Bitcoin ker. And if we want to retire with $100,000 every single year, so it means we're going to be selling $100,000 of our Bitcoin stack every year, we could retire in 2046. And even if we play with the numbers a little bit and we say, "Okay, let's say we only need to be living on $50,000 every single year." You're still talking about 2043. And even if you get a little bit more bullish and you start looking at Bitcoin's KGA like we are now and if you assume Bitcoin's KGA actually starts to increase over the next decade, which by the way I think is more likely than most people believe it to be. A lot of people are talking about Bitcoin's KG is going to continue to decrease. We're seeing diminishing returns. I don't believe in that. But even if you were bullish enough to assume Bitcoin's KGO is 100% a year, you could still potentially retire by 2033. This is still 7 years away. Uh so you can't retire with 1% of a Bitcoin. I I think that kind of puts it to bed. It's great to have more than zero Bitcoin. Don't get me wrong, you're out of the matrix. You've escaped the fiat prison. you have some sort of digital sovereignty. Owning more than zero Bitcoin is a great first step. But if you're thinking about it in, let's call it like a mode of transport. You don't really have a car yet. You might have a bicycle. Life's surely better uh pedaling to your destination than it is walking, but you know, you've got some work to do. you can't retire or you can't, you know, bicycle all day with this first level of Bitcoin wealth. So, let's get into the second. What is the second level of Bitcoin wealth? Well, that is the second jar of big marshmallows that I've got for you guys. This is talking about people who own 0.1 Bitcoin. This is 10% of a Bitcoin. And this is already a lot more rare than those people who are a little bit lonely and they only have 1% of a bitcoin. So glass node actually believes that there is somewhere around 10 to 12 million addresses that definitively have more than 1% of a bitcoin. So they've leveled up. They're at this second level of bitcoin wealth. They're approaching 10% of a bitcoin. And again, when you start thinking about things from first principles, this is beginning to get more rare. If you've got close to $10,000 of paper money today, you're already ahead of like 40% of the population, but things are a little bit different and you're a little bit more rare or sought after in the Bitcoin space. Let's look at its scarcity here. So, with $10,000, you still average. Yes, you are ahead of about 40% of the population, you know, and that's great. you've started. But in terms of Bitcoin, you are incredibly rare. If you're able to get 10% of a Bitcoin or say half of a Bitcoin, you are in such a rare class of person. We can see that the people in this second level of Bitcoin wealth, they actually hold only somewhere around 5% of all of the Bitcoin in existence today. And when we have a look at the number of addresses, there's only a few million. Again, today, think about it for a moment. There's somewhere around 60 to 70 million millionaires in the world. Now, if you're a millionaire, you got a million dollars, you're living comfortably. You know, you're not necessarily looking at the check when you're paying for dinner. You're not necessarily worried about flying an economy. If you're a millionaire, you're probably flying business in most situations. You're living comfortable. Again, back to our car analogy. You're not pedaling on a bicycle. You've got a Toyota Corolla. You're moving and you're moving in pretty good style. You're not moving around in a beat up high. Okay. So, again, this second level of Bitcoin wealth, despite it not sounding like a really large dollar amount, you know, 0.2 Bitcoin, it's $20,000. 0.5 Bitcoin, half a Bitcoin, it's $50,000. All right, we're getting there, but we're not quite there. Now, let's have a look at where we are and where we want to be. Let's go back to our when moon retirement calculator. So, as you can see, I've changed a few of the numbers in our little calculation. We're now looking at people who own half a Bitcoin. So, 0.5 Bitcoin. I think there's a lot of people in this second level of Bitcoin wealth who might have half a coin. Again, kudos if you own half a Bitcoin. That is a serious sack. I think you're going to be very rare. And as you can see, if you assume that Bitcoin is going to continue appreciating at 50% per year, you can retire by 2030. That's four years away. Like, you are now starting to seriously consider retirement. As you can see, you would have to sell $50,000 of Bitcoin every single year. And you could do this into perpetuity if Bitcoin continues compounding at 50% per year. And that's going to actually enable you to level up in these different levels of Bitcoin wealth. Again, you need to think like the rich if you want to become the rich. The rich, they never sell their assets. They borrow against their assets. That's why this idea of buy, borrow, die. It's so popular in traditional finance because it works. You don't sell your home or your stocks. You borrow against your assets. Again, we're going to talk about strategies a little bit more, let's say, later in today's video. I want to move on. I want to keep this super short and sweet and actionable for you guys. What is the third level of Bitcoin wealth? This is everybody with more than one Bitcoin. So again, like I said, each big marshmallow actually signifies 1% of a Bitcoin. But then I had to get creative because these jars, I didn't buy them big enough, sadly. So I've had to use a lot of little marshmallows. These are actually going to be accounting for 0.1 Bitcoin. And you know what? While we're at it, let's run a competition. The first person to correctly guess how many little marshmallows is in the big jar that is the fifth level of Bitcoin wealth, you'll win a prize. And who knows, it might be a better prize than what I thought of right now. So, the third level of Bitcoin wealth, it's one Bitcoin. Now, again, I won't be sending someone a full Bitcoin because I wish I had a full Bitcoin. Uh, this is very rare. And when we start looking at the number of people who own one Bitcoin, we can see today there's around a million people. Now, think about how rare that truly is for a moment. I think a lot of us kind of get lost in big numbers from time to time, which is why I like to make visual videos like this that visually shows the difference in wealth or levels of wealth because 1 million people in the entire world, that's incredibly rare. Like we are now starting to talk about, you know, a person who is not only in the top 1%, they're one in a 100. They're rarer than that. I like this little visual here that shows us how rare one in 179 is. This would theoretically put someone in the top 0.5%. Which I think is a pretty good comparison to this third level of Bitcoin wealth. Somebody with one whole Bitcoin. Again, we call these people whole coiners. And to show you just how rare I think it could be to own a full Bitcoin in the future, let's go back to this little Parados principle distribution that I made and showed you guys here on the channel a few months ago. I genuinely believe that we will enter a world where 3, four, 5 million Bitcoin are actually available and circulate for sale. Okay. I strongly believe that 10 15 million coins will be held by literally a handful of individuals, I'm talking the mega nation states, the billionaires like Larry Frink and Michael Sailor. Again, think about it already today. Sailor owns nearly 4% of the Bitcoin supply and Black Rockck owns nearly 5% of the Bitcoin supply. And these two entities have accumulated nearly 10% of the supply in really just the last 3 years. Sailor, yes, has been buying since 2020, but the majority of his buys have come in the past 3 years. I'm just extrapolating out a little bit further. Like, I'm not saying the trend's going to accelerate. I'm just saying, look, if the trend we've seen for the past 2 to 3 years continues, by 10 years, I think there's only really going to be 5 million Bitcoin that actually circulate. And if you do have that assumption, that's where this spreadsheet is incredibly interesting to me because we can see I believe that you're only going to need 4.27 27. Yeah, I'm going to have to squint. My eyes are getting bad. Bitcoin 4.27 to be a part of the large millionaire and millionaire corporation status. That means I think there's only going to be 65,000 individuals in the world who are going to be able to own somewhere around a full Bitcoin. Now, my little graphic here says four Bitcoin. So, I think let's say a 100,000 people will be able to own a full Bitcoin. This actually puts you closer to the billionaire class than the millionaire class when you're talking about rarity. Again, today 60 70 million millionaires. Uh again, if you hold a full Bitcoin, again, there's what 2 to 3,000 billionaires. If you're in the top 100,000 people, you're closer to a billionaire than a millionaire. So again, you are seriously moving. If we go back to our little car analogy, you're not pedaling a bike. You're not in a Toyota Corolla. You're probably in like a luxury SUV. We're not even talking soccer mom's car. We're talking about a really nice Jeep or a Mercedes. Something that as soon as somebody sees it, they're like, "Oh, that person. They have status, but they don't quite have wealth. This gets us into the next little level. Actually, no, it doesn't." because I didn't show you how quickly you could retire if you're in the third level of Bitcoin wealth. So, you've got more than a Bitcoin. Let's say you're a multicoiner. You're not just a whole coiner, you've got two or three Bitcoin. Let's crunch the numbers. So, this was kind of a pleasant surprise for myself. We can see again if we're talking about this third level Bitcoin wealth, let's just say somebody has three Bitcoin. So, again, you're balling out. Like we said, not quite a fiat millionaire, but let's assume you've got about 3 million cuck bucks worth of Bitcoin today. So if you've got that, you can pretty much retire now. We can see if you assume that Bitcoin's Kagers is going to be 50% per year in the future, you can retire now. That's if you want to be pulling $50,000 a year out to retire on. Again, I encourage you guys play around with the numbers yourself and come to your own conclusions about how much money you want to retire and how much you think you need. Again, the world is so different. You can uh be living in New York City and be making $300,000 a year and you could just be scraping by. You could be living paycheck to paycheck and living middle class. Again, I know this is the case in Europe. I was in Europe spending well over 20k a month. And I was living middle class, pretty average neighborhoods, pretty average food, pretty average Airbnbs and hotels. Honestly, quite small. But again, each country is very different. Here in Peru, you can have very nice house in a very safe, very nice neighborhood. You can have incredible food for much, much cheaper. So again, I know the world's different. It's not this static thing where there is just one perfect answer for everyone. That's why we're looking at all of the different levels of Bitcoin wealth and just showing you where you are. So again, you got a couple of Bitcoin, you're balling. Now, let's move on to the next level of Bitcoin wealth. This is the fourth level of Bitcoin wealth. And this is everybody with more than 10 Bitcoin. So, I don't need to tell you guys you're balling. If you've got 10 Bitcoin today, you know, let's just round up. Let's assume Bitcoin's close to $100,000 a coin. It's It's not. But you're you you're nearly a millionaire. Okay, if Bitcoin's at 85 or 90 or 95, you've nearly got a million bucks. So, you're already rare and in the top 1% uh in the traditional financial world today. But in the Bitcoin world, you are even more rare. As it currently stands, only 6% of the addresses that have self-custodied some Bitcoin today, only 6% of them have more Bitcoin than the fourth level Bitcoin wealth. Okay, that is people with more than 10 Bitcoin in an address. And again, caveat, I know that typically this is a guesstimation. I know that a person could have multiple addresses. I have a ton of different addresses, for example. I understand that. But I think this is good for demonstrative purposes. There's, let's call it 50 to 100 million people who actually hold Bitcoin in their own self-custody. If you are holding more than 10 Bitcoin, you are well and truly in a completely different class. Again, if we go back to our car analogy, you're not pedling. You're not in a SUV or a soccer mom's car. You've got a Lamborghini. You have not only status, but you probably have wealth. As we can see by looking at a retirement calculator, if you got 10 or 15 Bitcoin, you can retire and spend $150,000 a year. You have no issues uh living a pretty lavish lifestyle. In most countries around the world, you are never looking for when the bill comes for dinner. Okay? You're paying and you're probably paying for your friends, maybe your whole neighborhood, who knows? But the point here is if you've got more than 10 Bitcoin, you are absolutely set. Again, don't get me wrong, I'm ambitious. I know a lot of ambitious people, but I think for 99.9999% of people, 10 Bitcoin, that is a Satoshi billionaire, you are set. Now, again, reminder, there's 100 million Satoshi's in every Bitcoin. So, you got 10 Bitcoin, 10 times 100 million, you're a billionaire. You're a Satoshi billionaire. And that's what it's all about. So many people, they kind of forget that you can actually buy a fraction of a Bitcoin. And I still strongly believe if you have 10% of a Bitcoin, 20% of a Bitcoin, half a Bitcoin, I think, as you're about to see, you're probably going to be doing just fine for yourself in the future. So, this is why I think the final level of Bitcoin wealth, the fifth level of Bitcoin wealth, it's a dream is the wrong word. Uh cuz again it's good to dream but I think it's just good to be aware of. It's not something that I think everybody needs to strive for before we actually look at the fifth level of Bitcoin wealth. If you are anybody in the second, third, or fourth level of Bitcoin wealth, you should be taking self-custody of your Bitcoin. So again, massively important. If you need help taking self- custody of your Bitcoin, check out my partner, The Bitcoin Way. You can book a free 30-inut consultation with them down below with the link and they're going to help you with anything you need help with. Whether that be take Bitcoin off an exchange, set up a hardware wallet, run a node, or run a multi-IG or even plan a plan B, get a residence or a passport in a different country. My guys at the Bitcoin way, they can help you with anything you need. So, reach out. And again, if you are looking to get your hands on some Bitcoin, reach out to my other partner, Blockware. They can help you not only save on your tax bill if you're an American looking to buy Bitcoin mining equipment, but they also have hosted mining solutions. So that means you can literally take advantage of all the hard work they've done. They can plug in a Bitcoin mining rig for you and pay you out in Bitcoin. Again, links to both of my show partners down below in the description. If you are looking for somewhere to borrow against your Bitcoin, reach out to my friends at Lem. You can get approved for a loan in minutes and be funded on the same day. They're the only company that does full audits. So every 6 months they do an attestation and you can see directly where the Bitcoin is held. That's why $10 billion of capital has trusted Leen. It's an absolute no-brainer. Highly recommend you reach out to my friends at Leen. And now that you've hopefully taken care of your Bitcoin the way it should be taken care of, a kid can dare to dream. Let's look at the fifth level of Bitcoin wealth. This is everybody with more than 100 Bitcoin. Okay, so this is the part of the video where we're going to count just how many marshmallows is in this fifth level of Bitcoin wealth to see who has won the competition down below in the comments. Again, I'm looking for the earliest comment down below that correctly guesses the exact number of marshmallows. Or if there's not an exact guess, we're going to go with the closest. So, I'm going to count these for you guys. Okay, so I have counted every single marshmallow. I'm going to give everybody a chance to win. So, again, if you do want to know who is the winner, I will be releasing the name of the winner in my free email. I'm going to put it out maybe 3 or 4 days. I want to give everybody a chance to vote. So again, leave your votes down below in the comment section. Make sure you subscribe to that so you know who wins this competition. So I know we're about to talk about the fifth level of Bitcoin wealth. And again, I want to talk about how rare it is. So we can see that they hold somewhere around 60% of all of the Bitcoin, yet they only make up 0.03% of all of the addresses in Bitcoin. Just think about that for a moment. Again, 8020 is the normal wealth distribution. That's the parados principle. We're talking about 0.03% of people controlling 60% of wealth. Now, why is that? Well, that's because there is 700 million people who are using Bitcoin or crypto and they're using an exchange account. Again, this still blows my mind that so many people are not taking self-custody of their Bitcoin because again, you don't know how valuable Bitcoin is until you've sent a transaction to the other side of the world in seconds without permission near instantly. It's not until you have that light bulb moment do you can truly grasp just how valuable Bitcoin actually is. So, that is why we do see such this skew in the Bitcoin realm. This is also why I encourage you, doesn't matter what level of Bitcoin wealth you're at, you need to self-custody your Bitcoin like it is worth everything today because it is so rare to have self-custody Bitcoin. The way that I've come up with this, you know, fifth level of Bitcoin wealth is there are a lot of addresses that hold a th00and Bitcoin, 10,000 Bitcoin. And like for the majority of us, like 99.99999% of people having 100 Bitcoin or a,000 Bitcoin, I don't think there's going to be a big difference in the future. You're buying mansions and you're buying them anywhere around the world. Maybe instead of buying small islands and villages, you can buy a country. Maybe that's the difference between 100 Bitcoin and 10,000 Bitcoin, but I think for practical demonstrative purposes, I think they're pretty similar and they're not necessarily the questions or the thought experiments that I think is most valuable for most people. I think most people just simply want to retire earlier. They want enough Bitcoin so that they can retire comfortably and maybe pass on some generational wealth to their future kids. And a lot of people are probably wondering, okay, it's a lot of marshmallows on the table, Luke. What's the takeaway? How much Bitcoin do I actually need? I think one Bitcoin is a great start. So, if you're in South America, Central America, anywhere in Asia, you get a Bitcoin, you are absolutely living life well in the next few years. Okay? Obviously, one Bitcoin today, it's 100K. Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely blind, but I think we're talking about 2, three, four, five years from now. You got one bitcoin, you are doing great. Again, if you've got 10 bitcoin, I think in the west like you are a part of that top class of people. Like there might be 20, 30, 40, 50,000 people who are able to get 10 bitcoin in the future. I kind of see this as the new billionaire club. Again, a lot of people call me crazy for when I say that I think you might only need maybe somewhere around 1% of a Bitcoin to get into the millionaire club. U but again, if you look at Bitcoin with a paro's principle distribution and if you assume, okay, there's not 21 million coins available. What happens if there's only five? What happens if there's only three? You actually need a lot less Bitcoin than you could ever imagine. And I did cover that in another deep dive. I'll put a link to that video somewhere around there. So, go check that out if you are interested in looking at just how little Bitcoin you need to retire. And all that said, leave your votes down below for how many marshmallows you think this is. If you enjoyed this content, make sure you subscribe for when I drop future content. And will they send? I'll see you all in the next