A cryptocurrency stockpile worth more than $100 billion has been traced back to the mysterious inventor of bitcoin, according to new research.
Crypto data platform Arkham Intelligence discovered that wallets associated with bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto currently hold just over 1 million BTC, which is worth $108 billion at today’s prices.
This fortune would rank Nakamoto among the top 15 wealthiest people on the planet, ahead of Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Forbes’ Real-time Billionaires List.
“We’ve added an additional 22,000 Satoshi addresses with a total BTC balance of 1,096,354 to the Satoshi Nakamoto entity on Arkham,” the company posted on X.
“These are derived from a known mining pattern referred to as the Patoshi Pattern, and include the only (known) addresses from which Satoshi spent BTC from.”
Since the launch of bitcoin in 2009, the identity of its creator has remained a mystery, with speculation surrounding several figures within the crypto industry.
Early pioneers Hal Finney and Nick Szabo have both been linked to the Nakamoto identity, though no definitive proof has ever emerged.
Australian computer scientist Craig Wright spent eight years purporting to be the inventor of bitcoin before a High Court ruling in the UK dismissed his claims last year.
“The evidence is overwhelming that Dr Wright is not the author of the bitcoin white paper,” said Judge James Mellor.
“Most of his lies related to the documents he had forged, which purported to support his claim.”
Dr Wright subsequently issued a statement to his website admitting to not being the author of the Bitcoin White Paper that first introduced the cryptocurrency to the world.
