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Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious person who developed Bitcoin, is now one of the richest people in the world. On July 14, 2025, Bitcoin (BTC) hit an all-time high of over $122,000, putting Nakamoto in 11th place on the global billionaire list.
Arkham Intelligence, a company that analyzes blockchain data, says that Nakamoto has over 1.096 million BTC spread across thousands of inactive wallets.
This means that he is worth more than $134 billion (about Rp2,179 trillion). This milestone puts Nakamoto ahead of Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies, who has a net worth of $125.1 billion. It also shows how quickly Bitcoin has become a game-changing financial asset.
Nakamoto’s Unmatched Bitcoin Holdings
Nakamoto is rich because he or she has about 1.096 million BTC, which he or she got from mining Bitcoin in its early days, between 2009 and 2010. These coins, which are stored in thousands of wallets, make up about 5.2% of the entire capped quantity of Bitcoin, which is 21 million coins.
BitcoinTreasuries says that this makes Nakamoto the biggest single Bitcoin holder, far bigger than institutional and custodial holdings, which together control 847,000 BTC, or nearly 4% of the supply.
To put things in perspective, the Winklevoss twins, who started the Gemini exchange, possess about 70,000 BTC. Venture capitalist Tim Draper owns about 30,000 BTC that he bought at a U.S. Marshals auction in 2014.
Michael Saylor, the head of MicroStrategy, owns 17,732 BTC, and his firm owns 597,325 BTC.
People are curious about and have made guesses about Nakamoto’s wallets, which haven’t been touched since 2010.
People sometimes send small sums of Bitcoin to these addresses as gifts or to promote something. These coins are deemed “burned” because the private keys are thought to be unavailable.
Arkham Intelligence recently found 22,000 more addresses tied to Nakamoto, bringing the total to 1.096 million BTC. Nakamoto is not on Forbes’ list of billionaires because he is anonymous, even if he is very rich. Forbes’ list only includes assets that can be verified by the public, like stocks or real estate.
Bitcoin’s Rise and the Market
Strong institutional demand and good macroeconomic conditions have helped Bitcoin’s price rise to $122,000 on July 14, 2025. Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. have received record inflows. On July 10 and 11, Farside Investors reported net inflows of $1.18 billion and $1.02 billion, respectively, for seven straight days of robust investment. These ETFs, which the SEC approved in January 2024, have drawn in both institutional and individual investors. They already hold more over 1.4 million BTC, which is 6.6% of the total supply.
Corporate adoption has also sped up. BitcoinTreasuries says that the number of organizations that hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets has doubled from 124 to more than 265 in the last 30 days. These companies now control 3.5 million BTC. MicroStrategy’s recent acquisition of 4,020 BTC between May 19 and 25, 2025, is an example of this trend. However, its stock fell 7% in pre-market trading, showing that investors are not all on board. In addition, things like the U.S. “Crypto Week” and reports that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell would quit have made the market more hopeful, especially because President Donald Trump has been critical of Powell’s interest rate policies.
The Federal Reserve’s recent policy change to lower “reputational risk” monitoring for banks that work with crypto companies has helped the industry even more. This modification, which fixes the problems with Operation Chokepoint 2.0 that led to banks closing accounts, has made it easier for crypto firms to have bank accounts, which makes Bitcoin a more legitimate asset class.
Is it possible for Nakamoto to become the richest person in the world?
Some analysts think that Nakamoto’s fortune could grow even more, and they are hopeful about Bitcoin’s future. Eric Balchunas, an analyst for Bloomberg ETFs, says that if Bitcoin keeps growing at its historical rate of 50% per year, Nakamoto’s fortune could be bigger than Warren Buffett’s $154 billion and Mark Zuckerberg’s $216 billion by 2026. This would make Nakamoto the second-richest person in the world, behind Elon Musk, whose net worth is $342 billion. To do this, Bitcoin would have to be worth about $158,133 by the middle of 2026. Bitcoin would have to rise 185% to $342,000 to pass Musk. This is a difficult but not unattainable goal based on current forecasts.
Markus Thielen of 10x Research thinks there is a 60% possibility that Bitcoin would rise to $133,000 by September 2025, which is a 20% increase from where it is now. Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, is more optimistic and thinks the price will reach $150,000 by the end of the year. Matt Hougan of Bitwise thinks it will reach $200,000 by December 2025, thanks to a supply shock caused by increased institutional demand. Balchunas pointed out the irony of Nakamoto’s fortune by comparing it to that of Vanguard creator Jack Bogle, who never fully monetized his influence: “It’s interesting to think about how the founder of something so successful never cashed in.”
Nakamoto’s Legacy and What It Means for the Market
Nakamoto’s wealth, which is only theoretical because his wallets aren’t being used, shows how Bitcoin has changed the way money works around the world. Nakamoto’s idea of decentralized finance has changed how people think about money and investing since he wrote the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008 and mined the genesis block in 2009. His estimated 1.096 million BTC, worth $134 billion, is still there, which has led to conjecture about whether Nakamoto is dead, hiding, or determined to protect Bitcoin’s integrity by not interfering with the market.
If Nakamoto’s wallets were to become active, moving such a large amount of Bitcoin may cause the market to become very unstable. People are guessing what Nakamoto wants because of recent activity in other old Bitcoin wallets, such a $8.6 billion transfer in July 2025. However, there is no proof that these are linked to him. The crypto community sees Nakamoto’s untouched fortune as proof of Bitcoin’s values of decentralization and financial independence.
