Elon Musk Posts Cryptic Satoshi Nakamoto Tweet Sparking Memes About Whether He Invented Bitcoin

In a cryptic tweet posted today, Elon Musk alluded to Satoshi Nakamoto, the reclusive creator of Bitcoin whose identity is still a well-known mystery. Perhaps Musk was merely trolling by posting the logos of several companies that circled the letters to make up the name "Satoshi Nakamoto," but the internet responded with memes and wild theories regardless.

Satoshi Nakamoto originally authored the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008, explaining the technical processes behind Bitcoin, and in 2009, he reportedly mined the first block of the cryptocurrency. At that point, the dollar value of a Bitcoin was zero, but over the last two years, the highly volatile crypto has been valued in the five figures, and currently rests around $42,000 per BTC. Musk’s tweet subsequently sent Bitcoin surging, which isn't an uncommon trend when he references anything crypto-related on Twitter, as users speculated that he might be Nakamoto or have some insider knowledge about his identity.

Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity has remained a curious secret for years, and many speculate the name is a pseudonym for an unknown person. Over the years, researchers and internet users have speculated about who Nakamoto may be, proposing many candidates, none of which have been proven to be Nakamoto. One of these candidates was Elon Musk himself, who denied the allegations in 2017.

Despite the Japanese name, close analysis of Nakamoto’s writings, the timestamps on their posts and their word choices indicate that they are potentially a fluent English speaker and British. The last time Nakamoto posted anything was in 2010.

Whoever they are, Nakamoto owns between 750,000 and 1.1 million Bitcoins, stored up since the cryptocurrency’s beginning when BTC was much easier to mine. This amount of Bitcoin now makes Nakamoto a billionaire several times over, and also gives them a powerful role in the crypto market. Because Nakamoto owns around 5 percent of the total number of Bitcoins that will ever exist (supply is capped at 21 million, 18.9 million have already been mined), what they decide to do with their BTC can play a major role in the currency’s value and future.

Elon Musk’s interest in cryptocurrency is well-documented. He is already the “Daddy Doge,” having been involved with Dogecoin since 2019. Musk has bought a considerable amount of Dogecoin, tweeted extensively about the cryptocurrency to promote it and announced that Tesla would even accept payment in the crypto — leading the coin to spike in value many times.

Memers on the platform responded mostly to Musk’s choice of circling letters, proposing other names that might be found in logos.

While Musk’s tweet does not confirm that he is Satoshi Nakamoto (or really anything at all), it does come at a pivotal time for cryptocurrency. Today, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order calling on the government to begin investigating ways to regulate cryptocurrency, protect consumers and possibly produce a "digital dollar." While there are no firm policies yet in place, the cryptocurrency market will likely change very soon.