The richlist is one of the most-viewed pages on any explorer. It's simple to read but easy to over-interpret, so it's worth knowing exactly what it shows.
What it ranks
The richlist ranks addresses by balance, largest first. Quantascan's richlist is cross-chain: it interleaves addresses from both QRL Legacy and QRL 2.0 into a single ranking, with a column showing which chain each address belongs to.
To make that ranking fair, balances are normalised to a common unit before sorting — otherwise a QRL 2.0 balance stored in Planck would dwarf an equivalent QRL Legacy balance stored in Shor, purely because of units. Percentages are shown against the combined cross-chain supply.
Addresses, not people
The single most important caveat: the richlist ranks addresses, not people. Two facts make the difference:
- One person, many addresses. Nothing stops a holder from spreading funds across many addresses, so a single owner can appear as many small entries — or not near the top at all.
- One address, many people. An exchange or custodian pools thousands of customers' coins into a few wallets. Those addresses show enormous balances that aren't owned by one person at all.
So the richlist is best read as a distribution snapshot — how concentrated or spread out the supply is — not a leaderboard of the wealthiest individuals.
Labels help
To reduce confusion, Quantascan labels known addresses where it can — exchanges, mining pools, contracts, the deposit contract, and so on. A large balance marked as an exchange wallet means something very different from an unlabelled one. Where an address is identified, its wallet classification (for example exchange, mining pool, or contract) adds useful context about what the balance represents.
What it can and can't tell you
It can show:
- how concentrated the supply is at the top,
- which large holders are exchanges or contracts (where labelled), and
- how distribution shifts over time.
It can't tell you:
- who the people behind addresses are,
- how many distinct holders exist (one entity may hold many addresses), or
- intent — a large balance might be a custodian, a treasury, or a long-term holder.
Where to go next
- Units: Shor, Quanta and Planck — why amounts are normalised.
- Reading an address page — drilling into a single entry.
- QRL tokenomics and supply — the supply the richlist divides up.