The mysterious creator of Bitcoin now ranks close to the world’s top 10 richest people.

Bitcoin’s Secretive Founder Edges Toward World’s Top 10 Richest as BTC Surges

The mysterious creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is now on the cusp of ranking among the world’s wealthiest individuals—all without spending a penny of their fortune or ever revealing who they are.

As Bitcoin surged past $122,000 on Monday, Satoshi’s legendary trove of roughly 1.1 million BTC ballooned to over $134 billion, according to public blockchain records. That valuation puts Nakamoto just outside the global top ten richest list, ahead of names like Dell CEO Michael Dell and Walmart heir Rob Walton, and closing in on the fortunes of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and investing icon Warren Buffett, based on the Forbes real-time billionaires ranking. Satoshi’s holdings are also nearing the wealth of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who is estimated to be worth $142 billion.

All of Satoshi’s Bitcoin was mined in the cryptocurrency’s earliest days, when the network still ran on a handful of laptops. Despite the massive wealth now associated with those coins, none of them have ever moved since 2010, sparking constant speculation about whether Nakamoto is deceased, missing, or simply choosing to remain uninvolved.

Unlike traditional billionaires who built companies and pitched to investors, Satoshi created Bitcoin in anonymity and vanished. Sixteen years later, that quiet launch has evolved into a network now valued at over $2.4 trillion.

Bitcoin recently set a new all-time high, fueled by fresh ETF inflows, narratives around hedging inflation, and strong institutional interest. While Satoshi’s fortune remains theoretical—for none of the coins have ever been sold or confirmed as accessible—the staggering valuation is a testament to how far the crypto world has come since Nakamoto’s last forum post in 2011.