The mysterious person/group known as Satoshi Nakamoto, who/which created Bitcoin, has become the 11th richest person in the world after Bitcoin’s price hit $120,000 on Sunday.
Nakamoto is believed to own about 1.096 million Bitcoins, stored in thousands of different wallets. At today’s prices, that’s worth more than $131 billion, according to blockchain analytics firm Arkham.
This would technically make Nakamoto richer than Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies, who has a net worth of $125.1 billion, placing Nakamoto just outside the top 10 on the Forbes richest list.
However, Forbes doesn’t count crypto wallets when ranking billionaires. They usually include only assets that can be publicly confirmed, like company shares.
Still, if Nakamoto ever decided to move or use that Bitcoin, the world would definitely take notice.
Why Satoshi Nakamoto Isn’t the Richest Person in the World
At the moment, Elon Musk holds the title of the world’s richest person, with a fortune of over $404 billion, according to Forbes. Right behind him is Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, with $274 billion, and Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta, with a similar amount.
Nakamoto has now climbed to 11th place on the global rich list. But to reach the very top, Bitcoin’s price would need to jump by 203%, hitting around $370,000 per coin.
And even then, Nakamoto could only claim the top spot if the wealth of Musk and others doesn’t change.
How Other Bitcoin Holders Compare to Satoshi Nakamoto
Satoshi Nakamoto owns more Bitcoin than anyone else, and it’s not even close.
While companies and crypto custodians together hold about 847,000 Bitcoins roughly 4% of the total supply, that still falls short of Nakamoto’s stash of around 1.1 million Bitcoins.
- The Winklevoss twins, founders of the Gemini crypto exchange, are believed to own around 70,000 Bitcoins.
- Tim Draper, a venture capitalist, bought about 30,000 Bitcoins at a U.S. government auction in 2014.
- Michael Saylor, co-founder of Strategy, holds around 17,732 Bitcoins personally separate from his company’s Bitcoin holdings.
So while there are other “Bitcoin whales” out there, Satoshi still sits far above them all.
