Researchers suggest Satoshi Nakamoto has been withdrawing funds from 2010 Bitcoin wallets since 2019.
Researchers have proposed a new idea that suggests Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, has never gone dormant. This theory suggests that Nakamoto has been carefully withdrawing funds from early Bitcoin wallets since 2019.
The Bitcoin research firm BTCparser revealed in a statement on November 19 that a cache of 2010 Bitcoin wallet addresses, each holding fifty Bitcoin, existed. The first “awakening” in November 2019, known as the “2010 megawhale,” resulted in the transfer of these addresses.
The idea put forth by BTCparser suggests that Nakamoto was the owner of these wallets and that he has been gradually selling the pile of wallets while purposefully ignoring the 2009 wallets in order to avoid attracting attention to himself.
BTCparser published a post on November 19, stating, “It leads me to suspect that the mysterious mega whale that occurred in 2010 might actually be Satoshi.”
Despite this, it is still considered a “theory, not a conclusion,” according to BTCparser. If Satoshi is the person behind these wallets from 2010, BTCparser added, “it paints a picture of a creator who planned meticulously to ensure their privacy.
“If Satoshi has access to a treasure trove of 2010-minted coins, there’s no need to touch the original 2009 wallets. Using these later coins avoids drawing attention to the original stash, preserving anonymity and reducing the risk of revealing Satoshi’s identity.”
After the funds were pooled into a single P2SH address, which is normally used as an escrow, they were then transmitted to several bech32 addresses, which is a form of address that offers minimal transaction fees and makes efficient use of block space.
The first transaction of Bitcoin from these addresses took place in November 2019, and it was worth $5 million. The second and third purchases, which were in the region of $6-8 million and $11-13 million, respectively, took place in March and October of 2020.
The liquidation sale that took place ten days ago, on November 15, brought in a total of $176 million. According to BTCparser, Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, likely has more information about the person or company behind these transactions.
“The increasing sales volumes align with Bitcoin’s rising value, suggesting that this whale has been cashing out strategically.”
This is the case unless the whale acts through intermediaries. HBO’s controversial documentary from October claimed that Bitcoin cypherpunk Peter Todd was the creator of the cryptocurrency.
Todd questioned that conclusion, and most industry pundits suggested that HBO’s proof was not entirely convincing. Several individuals, including Nick Szabo, Adam Back, and Hal Finney, have had their names connected to the identity of Satoshi. It is common practice for Szabo and Back to reject assertions that they are Satoshi, as Finney did prior to his passing in 2013.
