Behind the name Satoshi Nakamoto sits a puzzle that still captivates the crypto community. The real person has never been verified, and the closest many researchers get is by tracing on-chain breadcrumbs linked to a Bitcoin account identifier. While the entirety of Satoshi’s potential BTC stash cannot be viewed in one place, one destination is accepted as theirs with certainty: the payout for the very first block, the so‑called Genesis Block. In the sections below, we walk through Satoshi Nakamoto’s address and assess how many Bitcoins are associated with Satoshi’s wallet, adding context from the public ledger.
Satoshi Nakamoto’s Wallet Address — what it is on the blockchain
Satoshi Nakamoto, credited as the originator of Bitcoin, did not rely on a single identifier and instead used numerous receiving destinations for BTC activity. The inaugural block of the chain was created by Satoshi on 3 January 2009. That initial reward destination can be located via common block explorers—examples include sites like Blockchair or —by searching for the first block’s coinbase output.
Address often attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto: 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa
The very first block produced a 50 BTC subsidy, yet those coins cannot be spent. This quirk comes from the protocol’s original logic: the coinbase output linked to that inaugural record never entered the global transaction set synchronized by decentralized nodes on the network. As a result, those units effectively materialized without a standard spend path, unlike routine mining payouts that follow validated entries.
Observations indicate that the portion potentially spendable from this destination—about 22.6 BTC—has not been moved by Satoshi. In total, that Genesis Block destination holds 72.6 BTC, which translated to roughly 2.1 million US dollars in August 2023.
Despite this, the destination shows periodic activity from admirers who send tiny tributes to the creator of Bitcoin and blockchain tech. As a small illustration, on the 22nd of July there were fourteen separate transfers for around two dollars apiece credited to that destination.
Satoshi Nakamoto’s First Transaction on Bitcoin
Shortly after the chain began, Satoshi initiated the earliest peer‑to‑peer payment using Bitcoin. On June 12, 2009, just three days after the Bitcoin network went live, Nakamoto sent the American software engineer Hal Finney 10 BTC from the identifier 12cbQLTFMXRnSzktFkuoG3eHoMeFtpTu3S.
The sender that produced this outgoing payment—linked to Satoshi Nakamoto—issued several transfers on 12 and 13 January 2009 and then became inactive. Similar to the address for the first block, enthusiasts have occasionally pushed small dust‑like amounts to it. When this was last reviewed, the destination used for that inaugural transfer showed 18.43 BTC, equating to roughly half a million US dollars.
Satoshi’s Dormant Bitcoin Wallets activity
During 2021, a cluster of long‑silent destinations attributed by onlookers to Satoshi Nakamoto suddenly began moving coins, prompting debate that these might belong to the cryptocurrency’s creator. In December of that year, approximately 165 BTC left one such identifier (13eab260d303c940243362a7bb92198687fe0a548053380b517a128bb6f1a5ab) for an unspecified recipient—the first activity recorded there since 2010. Historically, that destination once held as many as 500 BTC, largely sourced from early‑era mining in 2009 while Satoshi Nakamoto was still participating.
How Much Bitcoin Does Satoshi Nakamoto Own today?
Because Nakamoto favored anonymity, nobody can verify the precise coin count held by this figure. Even so, blockchain‑forensics specialists have examined early‑era activity to produce reasoned estimates. One well‑known analysis by Sergio Demian Lerner separated out mining patterns aligned with Satoshi’s visible participation and inferred that more than 1.1 million BTC may have been accrued. Using contemporary market prices, that would put Satoshi Nakamoto’s notional wealth around 32 billion US dollars.
Subsequent inquiries argue the holdings could be closer to a bit over half of that range—roughly six to seven hundred thousand BTC—still implying a valuation north of 15 billion dollars. Whichever estimate proves closer, pinpointing a single Satoshi Nakamoto address is unrealistic, as coins are dispersed across hundreds or even thousands of destinations. Much of this stash remains embedded in the original block rewards Satoshi mined, resting in their coinbase outputs on the decentralized ledger.
