Bitcoin Leaps Ahead of Rivals in Decentralization Hierarchy
A joint study by ARK Invest and Glassnode found that Bitcoin leads Ethereum and Solana in decentralization, measured across six dimensions.
The researchers applied a 51% hash-rate threshold to Bitcoin, which was exceeded through three mining pools: Foundry USA (27.27%), AntPool (17.06%), and F2Pool (16.96%). This produced a Nakamoto coefficient of three, defined as the minimum number of entities needed to cross the network's critical production threshold.
The study also found that Ethereum requires three staking entities to exceed 33%, with Lido representing 23.04% of staked ETH, Binance controlling 8.88%, and Kraken holding 6.91%. Solana, on the other hand, recorded a Nakamoto coefficient of 19 validators needed to control more than 33% of delegated stake.
BTC had the least expensive verification requirements, with an estimated hardware cost for a full node at $289 compared to Ethereum's $730 and Solana's $21,478. Bitcoin also had the most distributed hosting profile, with only 16% of measured infrastructure operating in data centers.