Someone, somewhere, has sent $1.2 million worth of cryptocurrency to the long-dormant wallet of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Now many in the cryptocurrency space are wondering: who did this, and why?
On Friday, A Anonymous crypto wallet With no previous transaction history, 26.92 bitcoins — worth about $1.26 million at writing — were sent to Bitcoin. Genesis wallet.which Satoshi used to mine the first ever Bitcoin block on January 3, 2009. The Bitcoin sent by the wallet was transferred from the Binance account.
Cryptocurrency users routinely send Bitcoin to their Genesis wallet as a form of honorary tribute to the cryptocurrency’s mysterious founder. Yesterday, for example, the address received 15 separate payments. Friday’s installment actually came just two days after the 15th anniversary of the Book of Genesis.
But such transactions are usually small, ranging from a few cents to a few dollars. Sending over $1 million worth of Bitcoin to a wallet controlled by none other than Satoshi certainly represents a bizarre event, and one that many cryptocurrency users spent the weekend contemplating.
““Either Satoshi woke up and bought 27 bitcoins from Binance and deposited them in his wallet, or someone just burned $1 million,” Coinbase director Conor Grogan wrote on Twitter on Friday evening.
With growing doubts about the possibility of this years later Untraceable silenceSatoshi will decide to start sending himself bitcoins via a file KYC compliant platform like Binance, many began to focus on the possibility that a third party might decide to effectively burn $1.2 million by sending it to a Genesis wallet.
Some crypto Twitter users thought the transaction must have been either a mistake — or, depending on the timing, some sort of well-funded marketing ploy from a financial institution vying for… Grab the most attention In the final stretch of the high-octane race to A.J Spot Bitcoin ETF.
It is unclear how the mysterious $1 million payment would constitute an effective announcement for the issuer of the Bitcoin ETF, other than fueling speculation about Bitcoin’s mysterious origins days before the cryptocurrency’s potential debut, in… A watershed momentand purposefully integrated into the mainstream global economy.
None of Fifteen companies Although currently pending Bitcoin ETF orders have not yet received credit for payment.
Another popular theory centered on A The new crypto tax law that’s gone It took effect in the US on January 1, requiring recipients of certain cryptocurrency payments made in the course of a “trade or business” to report those transactions to the IRS, or face criminal charges.
Some have speculated that the payment may have been sent as a ruse to force Satoshi to reveal his identity to the US government, or face prison time.
However, there are some holes in this theory as well. For example, the payer sent about $1.1 million more than he would have if his intention had been to trigger the IRS law. And two, read Good print: The new IRS policy would likely only apply if Satoshi, in the course of his professional business, received those 27 BTC as payment for a good or service.
So, unless Satoshi was a programmer working — $1 million at a time — to this anonymous cryptocurrency user with no prior payment history, the IRS probably wouldn’t come around. And even if, improbably, this scenario is indeed the case, good luck getting one of these more Chronic staff shortage Agencies in the United States government may be tracking down the most elusive person on the planet.