Bitcoin’s recent price surge has put its mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, in the top 11 of the world’s richest people — at least on paper. Bitcoin’s $120,000 price tag has brought the value of Nakamoto’s estimated bitcoin holdings to around $130 billion.
Nakamoto, who reportedly has more than 1 million bitcoin spread across thousands of wallets, has never moved a single coin since the early days of Bitcoin. This only adds to the mystery surrounding his identity and the massive wealth he’s sitting on.
According to Arkham, Nakamoto’s bitcoin stash recently topped $128 billion as bitcoin hit an all-time high of about $122,000. In theory, that would put Nakamoto at 11th on the Forbes billionaire list, ahead of tech CEOs like Michael Dell and even Bill Gates.
But Forbes doesn’t officially include Nakamoto in its rankings because its methodology focuses on publicly verifiable assets like stocks, while bitcoin in anonymous wallets is excluded.
Still, Nakamoto’s theoretical wealth is a sign of Bitcoin’s growing power and influence. Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas said, “It’s fascinating to ponder that the founder of something so successful never cashed in. It echoes Jack Bogle in that regard.”
Experts say Nakamoto may not stop at 11th. If bitcoin continues to grow at its historical 50% per year, Nakamoto could be the second richest person by 2026.
And that is based on his reported holdings, which may or may not be accurate. There might be some coins he holds that on-chain analysts have missed.
To take the top spot from Elon Musk — who’s worth over $400 billion — bitcoin would need to hit around $370,000. That’s a 200% rise from current prices.
Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, thinks bitcoin could easily hit $200,000 by the end of 2025 due to strong institutional demand.
Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, is more bullish, forecasting bitcoin to reach $250,000 this year. Other models even suggest the scarce digital asset could hit $400,000, making Nakamoto the richest person on Earth.
Some analysts believe bitcoin’s price is following a power law aligned with Metcalfe’s Law of network growth so $400,000 per bitcoin is a reasonable target in the next few years.
Nakamoto’s bitcoin holdings are way bigger than any single holder. Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. currently hold around 1,260,000 BTC together, and corporate treasuries hold around 840,000 bitcoin combined.
The next largest individual holders are the Winklevoss twins with 70,000 BTC, Tim Draper with 30,000 BTC and Michael Saylor with 18,000 BTC personally.
Despite this massive wealth, Nakamoto has never moved a single coin. Since 2011, none of his coins have been moved from their original wallets.
It brings forth the question: Is he alive, missing or just silent and uninvolved?
And to add to the mystery, a recent transfer of 15,341,422 sats (which is worth around $18,000 at current prices) was sent to Nakamoto’s Genesis Block address — the very first block ever mined in the Bitcoin network.
Arkham, a blockchain intelligence firm, thinks this could have been either an exchange withdrawal gone wrong or a long-time Bitcoiner’s tribute. Similar donations have happened before, sometimes for over a million dollars.
Despite all the speculation, the true identity of Bitcoin’s creator remains one of the biggest mysteries in finance.
Names like Hal Finney, Nick Szabo and even Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey have been thrown around as possible candidates, but no evidence has been found.
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