Conor Grogan, a director at Coinbase, has raised the possibility that Kraken and its CEO may have insights into the identity of Bitcoin's enigmatic creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. This speculation arose following the integration of Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin holdings into Arkham Intelligence's tracking platform.
Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence estimates that Satoshi owns approximately 1,096,354 Bitcoin, valued at around $107 billion at current market prices.
These holdings are distributed over more than 22,000 wallet addresses, including the only known addresses where Satoshi has previously transacted. These addresses were identified through what is known as the Patoshi Pattern, a unique mining signature from Bitcoin's early days believed to be connected to its creator.
Grogan shared an analysis of Satoshi's wallet activity on X (formerly known as Twitter), arguing that although these addresses might not definitively tie back to Nakamoto, the evidence strongly implies such a connection. "Our research indicates that Satoshi's holdings could be worth about $108 billion, theoretically making them wealthier than Bill Gates," Grogan noted.
In his research, Grogan discovered 24 transactions from these Satoshi-linked addresses, with one of the most significant transactions going to the wallet 1PYYj. This wallet reportedly received Bitcoin from Cavirtex, a now-defunct Canadian crypto exchange. "This is potentially the first documented on-chain link between a Satoshi-linked wallet and a centralized exchange," Grogan remarked, suggesting a rare interaction with a regulated platform, given Satoshi's historical preference for anonymity.
When Kraken acquired Cavirtex in 2016, Grogan speculated that its CEO, Jesse Powell, might be privy to Satoshi's real identity, assuming any Know Your Customer (KYC) data on the wallet was retained. "My suggestion to him would be to delete the data," Grogan advised.
Moreover, the address 1PYYj seems connected to funding a major Bitcoin wallet, currently among the largest with over $3 billion in BTC, reinforcing the hypothesis that it was controlled by Satoshi or an early Bitcoin participant. Grogan also proposed that a 500 BTC transaction to 1PYYj in 2010 could indicate a previously unrecorded transaction from the Nakamoto era.
In light of Grogan's findings, Kraken responded with a cryptic social media message: "We are all Satoshi." While this does not confirm any direct knowledge of Nakamoto's identity, it leaves open the question of whether Kraken could help solve Bitcoin’s biggest mystery.
Several previous claims have been made about Satoshi's identity, including Craig Wright’s claims that were dismissed in court, and an HBO documentary speculating on developer Peter Todd’s potential identity as Satoshi, which Todd has denied. In October 2024, a London conference saw Stephen Mollah claim he created Bitcoin.