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▲ Bitcoin (BTC), Satoshi Nakamoto/ChatGPT generated image
Satoshi Nakamoto's estimated holdings of approximately 1.09 million BTC have remained dormant for over a decade, making this amount the largest unidentified variable in the Bitcoin market.
According to crypto media outlet The Crypto Basic on May 26 (local time), the identity of Satoshi, the founder of Bitcoin (BTC), has not yet been confirmed. Satoshi released the white paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" in October 2008 and launched the Bitcoin network by mining the Genesis Block on January 3, 2009.
According to blockchain researcher Sergio Demian Lerner's analysis of early mining patterns, Satoshi is estimated to hold approximately 1.1 million BTC. Arkham data indicates Satoshi's holdings as approximately 1,096,361 BTC, which accounts for about 5.47% of Bitcoin's circulating supply of 20.03 million BTC.
As of May 2026, when Bitcoin was trading at $76,851, Satoshi's estimated holdings were valued at approximately $84.26 billion. Last year, when Bitcoin reached its all-time high of $126,198, the value of the same holdings grew to approximately $138.35 billion.
Blockchain data shows some Bitcoin movements in Satoshi-related wallets during the early years. Arkham stated that Satoshi's last known outgoing transaction occurred 16 years ago, and one of those transactions included 32.51 BTC sent to Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn. Since then, no further outflows have occurred from these wallets, and even now, very small fragments of Bitcoin are still flowing in daily.
Some early Bitcoin addresses have a structure where public keys are exposed on the blockchain, theoretically posing a risk of private key derivation if sufficiently powerful quantum computers emerge in the future. Glassnode analyzed that approximately 6.04 million BTC, about 30% of the Bitcoin supply, may have a certain level of quantum exposure risk, while the remaining 13.99 million BTC are protected under stronger address structures. Currently, no quantum computers capable of breaking Bitcoin's cryptography exist, and large-scale quantum attacks are still considered a speculative risk.
*Disclaimer: This article is for investment reference only, and we are not responsible for any investment losses based on it. The content should be interpreted for informational purposes only.*
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