Bitcoin Surge Makes Satoshi Nakamoto 11th Richest Person

Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, has ascended to the position of the 11th richest person in the world following Bitcoin's surge to $120,000 on Sunday. Nakamoto is believed to possess 1.096 million Bitcoin (BTC) distributed across thousands of wallets, which is valued at over $131 billion at current prices, according to blockchain analytics company Arkham. This substantial holding would theoretically place Nakamoto at number 11 on Forbes’ richest billionaires list, surpassing Michael Dell, CEO of tech giant Dell Technologies, who has a net worth of $125.1 billion. However, it is important to note that Forbes’ billionaires list does not consider crypto wallet holdings when evaluating billionaires; instead, it tracks individuals’ publicly verifiable holdings, such as stocks.

Bitcoin crossed just over $120,000 on Monday, reaching a new all-time high, according to Nansen data. However, this price is still not high enough for Nakamoto to take the top spot on the Forbes billionaire list. Elon Musk, the tech entrepreneur and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, is ranked as the richest billionaire in the world on Forbes list, with a net worth of over $404 billion. Larry Ellison, co-founder of software company Oracle, is second on the list with a fortune estimated to be $274 billion. Meta CEO Zuckerberg rounds out the top three with $274 billion to his name. Bitcoin would need to spike another 208% to hit $370,000 for Nakamoto to take the top spot, but only if the other billionaires’ net worths are unchanged.

In a June 2 post on X, an analyst predicted that Nakamoto could become at least the second-richest billionaire by the end of 2026. He said that if Bitcoin does its “normal 50%/ann,” then Nakamoto will likely climb to number two “sometime next year-ish.” It’s fascinating to ponder that the founder of something so successful never cashed in. It echoes Jack Bogle in that regard. John “Jack” Bogle, the founder and chief executive of The Vanguard Group, died in 2019 with a reported net worth of $80 million, when most of his peers were billionaires.

Nakamoto holds more Bitcoin than anyone else by a significant margin. Corporations and custodians hold 847,000 total, or 4% of Bitcoin’s capped supply, according to BiTBO. A small group of individuals also has an ample supply of Bitcoin. The Winklevoss twins, the founders of crypto exchange Gemini, are estimated to hold about 70,000. Tim Draper, a venture capitalist and early Bitcoin backer, holds around 30,000, which he bought at a 2014 US Marshals auction. Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor also has a private stash outside his company’s holdings of around 17,732.