Coinbase Executive Claims Kraken May Know Satoshi Nakamoto’s Identity

The Kraken exchange could know the answer to the biggest mystery in crypto: the identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

That’s one of the conclusions reached by Coinbase director Conor Grogan after a deep dive into Nakamoto’s digital wallets.

In a lengthy thread on X, Grogan laid out evidence that Nakamoto may have used a Canadian exchange later bought by Kraken. If that exchange collected know-your-customer (KYC) data of any kind from Nakamoto, it could still be in the files.

Grogan said his advice to Kraken founder Jesse Powell “would be to delete the data.”

Canadian Connection

Grogan’s proof starts with an investigation by blockchain analysis firm Arkham Intelligence, which uncovered a set of wallet addresses with a mining pattern believed to be Nakamoto’s. That those wallets belonged to Nakamoto is an assumption, Grogan admits, but he believes there is “good evidence” that they do.

If they are Nakamoto’s wallets, it would up the amount of Bitcoin owned by Nakamoto to 1.096 million, worth about $108 billion. That’s richer than Bill Gates, Grogan added.

Bitcoin was sent from the newly discovered wallets to two dozen addresses, mostly to an address known as 1PYYj. That address received Bitcoin from the Canadian centralized exchange Cavirtex, which Kraken bought in 2016. If it collected know-your-customer data of any kind from Nakamoto, it would be a strong piece of evidence connecting the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto to a specific person. While several likely suspects have emerged over the years, all have denied being Bitcoin’s creator.

In addition, the address that received BTC from Cavirtex “is also associated with funding” a wallet known as 12ib, which Grogan identifies as one of the largest active Bitcoin addresses.

It currently holds about $3 billion in BTC.

Beyond that, the addresses in question sent 200 BTC to fund the Bitcoin faucet, a web page that once gave out 5 BTC just for completing a CAPTCHA to ensure the BTC was going to a real person.

If Grogan is correct, it places Nakamoto active onchain as late as 2014. Satoshi’s last post on a Bitcoin forum was on Dec. 12, 2010.

“This is the first set of evidence I've seen in years that has decreased my confidence that Satoshi was Len,” Grogan said, referring to the late Len Sassaman. His widow has denied he was Nakamoto.

Interestingly, a recent HBO documentary suggested a Canadian crypto expert, Peter Todd, was Nakamoto. Todd has denied it.