THE true identity of Bitcoin creator “Satoshi Nakamoto” is known, according to a crypto executive, with his wallet hitting an estimated $100 billion in value.
Bitcoin‘s popularity has exploded with President Donald Trump back in the White House as he promises to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet”.
A Coinbase executive has claimed that Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity could be known by the rival crypto exchange Kraken
PALast year, British resident Dr Craig Wright tried to claim he was Satoshi[/caption]
GettyPresident Trump promises to make the US the ‘crypto capital of the planet’[/caption]
A Coinbase executive has claimed that Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity could be known by the rival crypto exchange Kraken.
It comes as new data has put his bitcoins stockpile at over an eye-watering $100 billion.
Conor Grogan, the director of Coinbase, revealed on X that he discovered a number of on-chain transactions linked to a Satoshi-controlled wallet that interacted with CaVirtEx – a now-inoperative Canadian Bitcoin exchange.
He said that his “best guest is that Satoshi was last active on-chain in 2014,” that the mysterious creator “may have used Canadian BTC exchange” and that “Kraken may know [his] identity”.
Nakamoto’s last known message was sent to bitcoin developer Mike Hearn in an email in 2011.
In his email, he claimed to have “moved on to other things”.
CaVirtEx was bought by the US crypto exchange Kraken in 2016, and Grogan thought that cofounder Jesse Powell or other Kraken members may know the true identity of Nakamoto.
This would be through customer information connected to the wallet.
Grogan added: “My advice to him would be to delete the data.”
Satoshi Nakamoto has been able to keep his real identity under wraps since publishing bitcoin’s white paper in 2008, with bitcoin becoming an eye-watering $2 trillion asset.
And the person, or group of people, that own bitcoin could be worth around $100 billion if they still control the bitcoins they’re thought to hold across various wallet addresses.
Bitcoin boom under Trump
BITCOIN and crypto prices have already fluctuated greatly under President Trump in his second term.
Trump sent stock markets tumbling after Mexico and Canada vowed to hit back with revenge sanctions after slapping the US neighbours with a 25 per cent tariff on all imports.
But after the tariff threats were paused, prices of bitcoin and crypto rebounded.
Trump has signed an executive order that instructs the Treasury and Commerce departments to form a sovereign wealth fund within the next year.
This has sparked thoughts that the fund could may well be used as something for US government bitcoin purchases.
Trump vowed to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet” which helped the token’s price surge to six-figure highs.
But, US hedge fund Elliot have warned that Trump’s crypto boom will lead to an “inevitable collapse” that “could wreak havoc in ways we cannot yet anticipate”.
Kraken jokingly replied to Grogan, posting on X: “We are all Satoshi.”
The fresh breakthrough evidence uses what’s called the “Patoshi Pattern” bitcoin addresses that are categorised by Arkham Intelligence – a blockchain analytics platform.
And earlier in February, Arkham analysts claimed they had linked new wallets to the mysterious Nakamoto.
Researchers posted to X: “We’ve added an additional 22,000 Satoshi addresses with a total bitcoin balance of 1,096,354 to the Satoshi Nakamoto entity on Arkham.
“These are derived from a known mining pattern referred to as the Patoshi Pattern, and include the only (known) addresses from which Satoshi spent bitcoin from.”
In March 2024, Australian-born, English resident Dr Craig Wright was ordered by the High Court to stop claiming he was Satoshi Nakamoto.
The IT expert asserted that he authored the 2008 Bitcoin white paper under the name Satoshi Nakamoto.
Getty – ContributorBitcoin has taken the financial world by storm[/caption]
But the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (Copa) believed otherwise, and filed a lawsuit against Wright in the UK in 2021, seeking a ruling that Wright is not in fact the pseudonymous author.
Copa insisted that Wright has repeatedly faked documents to support his claim before changing his story when the inconsistencies were spotted.
But Wright denied the accusations and blamed others, including former lawyers and associates for any counterfeit papers.
The asset is a form of digital currency which uses digital coins created or “mined” using complex calculations performed by computers.
It is used as an alternative payment method or speculative investment, and ultimately aims to eliminate the need for central authorities like banks or governments.
Speculation about Nakamoto’s true identity has run rampant for years and mostly involved software and cryptography experts in the United States or Europe.
In 2015, American magazine Wired wrote that Wright “either invented Bitcoin or is a brilliant hoaxer who very badly wants us to believe he did”.
What do we know about Satoshi Nakamoto?
THE man, the myth and the legend of Satoshi Nakamoto is sitting on a pile of crypo-currency worth billions.
Nakamoto is believed to be a pseudonym and the true identity of the inventor remains shrouded in mystery.
2007 – Nakamoto worked on the first ever version of the software in 2007 and all communication to and from him was conducted via email.
2008 – The mystery man first introduced the concept of cryptocurrency and the blockchain system of verification to the world in a 2008 paper.
2010 – His involvement with Bitcoin ended in 2010 and his last correspondence was that he had “moved onto other things”.
And ever since, a series of characters have claimed or been accused of being Nakamoto.
2014 – Newsweek thought they had found their Satoshi Nakamoto – a computer engineer living in Temple City in Los Angeles County.
And while the Japanese-American man, named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, firmly denied he was the shadowy force behind the infamous cryptocurrency – the plot continued to thicken.
It soon emerged that computer scientist Hal Finney, who was the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction, lived a “few blocks” from the seemingly-oblivious Nakamoto.
However, people later believed that Finney was either a ghostwriter for the Bitcoin creator or simply used his neighbour’s name as a moniker.
The other best known Nakamoto-suspect is Australian computer scientist and businessman Craig Wright.
But unlike the other leading contenders, Wright began actually claiming he is Nakamoto in 2016.
2016 – Wright said he provided technical “proof” to the BBC, The Economist and GQ.
This consisted of a demonstration of the verification process used in the very first Bitcoin transaction.
He then posted an apology on his blog stating that he no longer had the “courage” to continue the process of proving his identity.
Wright subsequently appeared in Netflix documentary Banking on Bitcoin and once again claimed to be Nakamoto in what he said would be his final filmed interview.
However, he has continued to try and legally battle to ‘prove’ he is the Bitcoin founder.
And whether he is or not might finally be decided at a trial which started on Monday.
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