Someone Sent $1.2 Million in Bitcoin to Satoshi’s Wallet—Why?

Someone, somewhere, just sent $1.2 million worth of crypto into hibernation Wallet The never-before-seen, anonymous founder of Bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto.

Now many in crypto are wondering: who did this and why?

On Friday, a Anonymous crypto wallet 26.92 BTC – $1.26 million in text – sent to Bitcoin with no previous transaction history “Genesis” walletOn January 3, 2009, Satoshi used the first block of Bitcoin to mine. The BTC sent by the wallet is transferred from the Binance account.

Crypto users regularly send bitcoins to Genesis wallets. Yesterday, for example, the address received 15 different payments. And Friday's payout comes just two days after the Genesis block's 15-year anniversary.

But such transactions are typically small, ranging from a few cents to a few dollars. Sending over a million dollars worth of BTC to a wallet controlled by no one but Satoshi was a rare occurrence that many crypto users spent the weekend thinking about.

“Or Satoshi woke up and bought 27 bitcoins from Binance and deposited them [it] In their wallet or someone burned a million dollars,” Coinbase director Conor Grogan wrote on Twitter on Friday night.

Years later, doubts are mounting. Invisible silenceSatoshi decided to start sending BTC to himself through a KYC compliant With a platform like Binance, many began facilitating the decision to effectively burn $1.2 million by sending a third party to the Genesis wallet.

Some crypto Twitter comments thought the transaction must have been a mistake – or, depending on the timing, a well-funded trading scheme by one of the financial institutions. Keep high concentration The final leg of the high-octane race to a Place Bitcoin ETF.

It's unclear how a multimillion-dollar secret payment would be effective advertising for a Bitcoin ETF issuer, let alone guessing the mysterious origins of Bitcoin days before the cryptocurrency was created. Watershed momentis meaningfully integrated into the mainstream global economy.

None of them Fifteen organizations Although currently pending Bitcoin ETF applications, they have yet to take out a loan for the payment.

Another indirect theory focuses on A. New crypto tax law passed Effective January 1 in the United States, it will require recipients of certain crypto payments made in the course of a “trade or business” to report those transactions to the IRS, or face criminal prosecution.

Some have speculated that the payment may have been sent as a scam to force Satoshi to reveal his identity to the US government or face prison time.

There are a few holes in that theory though. For one, the payer sent about $1.1 million more if their goal was to trigger that IRS bill. And two, read Good printThe new IRS policy only applies if Satoshi received those 27 BTC in payment for goods or services during their professional career.

So unless Satoshi is a working coder—one million dollars at a time—for this anonymous crypto user with no history, the IRS probably won't come knocking. And even if that situation, unlikely, is actually the case, good luck finding one of the many Chronic labor shortage Agencies within the US government track down the most elusive individual on the planet.