Is Jack Dorsey Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto? The debate reignites

When it comes to guessing the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, Jack Dorsey’s name hasn’t popped up too often.

Yet this week, a fresh round of speculation has reignited debate over whether the Twitter co-founder is Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator.

This is largely thanks to Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital assets research, who said he is convinced that Dorsey is the Bitcoin founder.

“The evidence linking Jack to Satoshi is a combination of technical parallels, circumstantial links, patterns (including timing), uncanny coincidences, motive, and ability,” Sigel said in an X post.

“While not definitive, the breadth of these connections is compelling and worthy of further scrutiny.”

Not a top suspect

Dorsey, 48, leads Block, a payments processing firm, and was formerly the CEO of Twitter, which was renamed X after Elon Musk acquired the social media giant in 2022.

Dorsey didn’t respond to a request for comment, but has batted away enquiries about Nakamoto before.

In 2020, podcaster Lex Fridman asked Dorsey if he was Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator.

“No.” Dorsey said. “If I were, would I tell you?”

In 2023, Gita Wirjawan, another podcaster, asked the same question.

Dorsey denied being Nakamoto, but said: “I’m very grateful. And if I knew who this person was, or would ever have the honour of meeting this person, I would just say thank you.”

If Dorsey was Satoshi, he’d have the keys to 1.1 million Bitcoin worth $107 billion.

Sigel’s speculation draws on the work of deBanked chief editor Seán Murray, who developed the theory in February last year.

Murray argues that Dorsey’s early involvement in the cypherpunks movement, his scepticism of the financial system, and early adoption of Bitcoin make him a likely candidate.

‘It did not dawn on them that the person countering the claim was Jack Dorsey.’

—  Seán Murray

He points out that important dates in Bitcoin’s development, such as Nakamoto’s first Bitcoin transaction, line up with what he claims are notable events in Dorsey’s life, such as his mother’s birthday.

On January 10, 2009, Nakamoto accidentally leaked an IP address that revealed a California location.

Murray points out that the day before, Dorsey had attended an awards ceremony in San Francisco.

St. Louis connection

In 2014, one of Nakamoto’s email addresses was hacked.

The hacker claimed that Nakamoto’s emails contained confirmation of the Bitcoin creator’s identity.

In an attempt at blackmail, the hacker released a screenshot of a purchase order that showed someone had used the address to order a Bitcoin mining machine to an address in St Louis, Missouri.

The goal was to get Nakamoto — or conversely, those interested in knowing the Bitcoin creator’s identity — to pony up 25 Bitcoin, after which, the hacker would reveal Nakamoto’s identity.

Some consider the blackmail attempt to be a fake. Not Murray.

He argues that Dorsey’s ties to St Louis — he was born there and the co-founders of his company Block live there — is more than a coincidence.

“In all the cities on planet Earth that someone would use as a goof, the odds that they’d pick St Louis is 1/10,000,” Murray said. “It’s uncanny that this leaked screenshot that was used to try and blackmail Satoshi would plainly state that the recipient was located in St Louis.”

Dorsey vs Wright

More recently, Block, which Dorsey leads, helped fund the Crypto Open Patent Alliance’s lawsuit against computer scientist Craig Wright, who claimed to be the creator of Bitcoin.

Wright’s attorneys argued in early 2024 that if he was not Satoshi “then the real Satoshi would have been expected to come forward to counter the claim.”

“It did not dawn on them that the person countering the claim was Jack Dorsey,” Murray said in an X post.

In March, a London High Court judge ruled Wright wasn’t Nakamoto.

It’s not the only potential instance of Dorsey dropping hints he’s Nakamoto. The X founder has attended the 2023, 2024, and 2025 Super Bowls wearing a t-shirt with the name Satoshi written on it.

While sceptics say the shirt is Dorsey paying homage to Bitcoin and Nakamoto, Murray thinks it could be more literal.

However, many have criticised Murray’s claims, including for example, his interpretations of what he says are hidden messages in the random mishmash of numbers and letters that make up Nakamoto’s Bitcoin wallet addresses.

‘Strong reactions’

Sigel’s post outlining Murray’s theory has so far been viewed over a million times. Reactions have been mixed.

“In the spirit of the cypherpunks, my professional advice is that you STFU,” Jameson Lopp, an American cypherpunk and co-founder of Bitcoin security provider Casa, said on X.

Attempts to uncover Nakamoto’s identity have elicited strong reactions from Bitcoin backers. They argue that unmasking the Bitcoin creator could put the person, or people, in danger.

“It’s a conversation worth having,” Sigel said, arguing that transparency could reduce speculation and address market fears.

Many Nakamotos

Questions about Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity were revived in October, when an HBO documentary by filmmaker Cullen Hoback named Peter Todd as the pseudonymous Bitcoin creator.

Todd denied Hoback’s claim in the documentary, and after it aired, in an X post.

Todd’s name was in the mix along with American cryptographer Len Sassaman, who died shortly after Nakamoto sent his last public messages in 2011.

Sassaman’s widow, Meredith L Patterson, told DL News at the time she didn’t think he was Nakamoto.

“The best case against him being Satoshi is some newbie mistakes in the design of the original protocol, like being able to send to an IP address,” she said.

Other popular candidates for Nakamoto’s identity include computer scientist Nick Szabo, early Bitcoin contributor Hal Finney, and international criminal Paul Le Roux.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.