Bitcoin's Satoshi Nakamoto: New Clues Emerge

The identity of Bitcoin's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, has remained a mystery for years, despite numerous attempts by sleuths and documentarians to uncover the truth. However, a prominent crypto industry executive has recently claimed to have discovered new information about Satoshi's on-chain activity that could potentially lead to his true identity.

Conor Grogan, the head of product business operations at Coinbase, revealed this week that he found several on-chain transactions linked to a Satoshi-controlled wallet that interacted with Cavirtex, a now-defunct centralized Bitcoin exchange based in Canada. Grogan's findings suggest that Satoshi may have interacted with centralized crypto exchanges, which typically require identity verification from all customers. If true, this would be a significant breakthrough in the hunt for Satoshi's identity, as it could mean that Cavirtex collected personally identifiable information, including the developer's legal name and address.

Cavirtex was acquired by the American crypto exchange Kraken in 2016, raising the question of whether Kraken inherited any relevant information during the merger. However, it is unclear if Cavirtex operated under mandatory know-your-customer (KYC) requirements for all customers at the time Satoshi may have interacted with the exchange, or if Kraken retained Cavirtex's KYC data post-acquisition. A Kraken representative did not immediately respond to Decrypt's request for comment on the matter.

It appears that Cavirtex was already enforcing KYC for all customers as early as December 2013, when Grogan says Satoshi received Bitcoin from the exchange. This was a time when several Bitcoin exchanges skirted such requirements. In fact, a popular online Bitcoin forum described Cavirtex as having stricter KYC policies similar to those of Coinbase and Kraken. If Cavirtex did collect identifying information from Satoshi, it is possible that Kraken inherited that data and still possesses it.

Kraken has so far engaged with Grogan's claims about Satoshi somewhat cheekily, with the exchange's X account responding nebulously: "We are all Satoshi." While the exchange has not yet confirmed or denied the possibility of possessing Satoshi's identifying information, the discovery of Satoshi's on-chain activity with Cavirtex has reignited the debate surrounding the Bitcoin creator's true identity.