Satoshi Nakamoto’s Genesis wallet suddenly received $1.17 million in Bitcoin

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In a surprising development in the cryptocurrency space, an unknown Bitcoin user transferred 26.9 Bitcoin (BTC) on the Genesis wallet, currently worth $1.17 million. This wallet was the first wallet on the Bitcoin network and was founded by the mysterious father Satoshi Nakamoto.

The transaction is timestamped at 13:52 UTC on January 5, and the transaction fee is significantly higher than the average of $100. The funds were sent from an empty wallet, sparking a flurry of discussion and speculation in the cryptocurrency community.

Preliminary investigations indicate that the expansion of the Genesis wallet occurred by moving funds from three separate wallets to dozens of other wallets. According to data from blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence, a large portion of the funds came from wallets associated with Binance.

Coinbase director Conor Grogan shared his thoughts on X (Twitter), proposing a number of different theories about the mysterious transfer. Grogan explained the possibility of Satoshi Nakamoto reappearing to deposit BTC from Binance, or speculated that this could be a lavish marketing strategy for the spot Bitcoin ETF.

Either Satoshi Nakamoto woke up and bought 27 Bitcoins from Binance and deposited them into his wallet, or someone just burned $1 million pic.twitter.com/w34kjnAHPJ

— Connor (@jconorgrogan) January 6, 2024

However, the underlying motivation for the transaction remains unclear, as there has been no movement on Satoshi-related wallets, including the Genesis wallet, since the creator’s disappearance in December 2010. Satoshi Nakamoto likely held the private keys controlling these funds, despite his long absence.

The Genesis wallet, which initially mined 50 Bitcoins after the disappearance of Satoshi Nakamoto, has become an icon for Bitcoin enthusiasts around the world. On the 14th anniversary of the birth of Bitcoin, users contributed BTC to the wallet, and by the end of 2023, the wallet balance reached 72 Bitcoins.

This recent large transfer significantly increased the current balance of the Genesis wallet to 99.67 Bitcoins, worth approximately $4.3 million. Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous figure behind the creation of Bitcoin who wrote the Bitcoin white paper and designed the network’s original reference implementation, including the groundbreaking blockchain database, remains a mystery.