This may be the biggest news in the cryptocurrency world. 17 years after the birth of Bitcoin, The New York Times yesterday released an in-depth investigative report that took a year, claiming to have confirmed the true identity of Bitcoin’s mysterious founder Satoshi Nakamoto: the 55-year-old British cryptographer Adam Back. However, the person involved, Back, immediately and strongly denied it, leaving the century-old mystery of “Searching for Satoshi Nakamoto” still unsolved.
Reporter who broke the news about Theranos: AI analysis of 34,000 users identified the suspect
This investigation was conducted by a well-known investigative reporter from The New York Times John Carreyrou He rose to prominence by exposing fraud at blood-testing company Theranos. This time Carreyrou turned his investigative skills to the biggest mystery in the currency circle, using AI technology to analyze the data of 34,000 users on three cryptography mailing lists from 1992 to 2008, trying to find out the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.
The investigation team compared Satoshi’s writing style with that of other active users and found some unique language features: For example, Satoshi does not use hyphens to connect compound nouns, often confuses the usage of “its” and “it’s”, and prefers British English spelling. Through these language fingerprints, the AI finally targeted Adam Back.
Carreyrou further discovered that Back’s timeline of cryptography forum activity in the early 1990s eerily overlapped with Satoshi’s appearance on Bitcoin forums. When Carreyrou confronted Back at a Bitcoin conference in El Salvador, he described Back as “blushing and fidgety,” and even made a slip of the tongue during the conversation “as if he was speaking in the first person of Satoshi Nakamoto.” This convinced Carreyrou that “he had found the right person.”
Who is Adam Back? Hashcash Inventor and Blockstream CEO
Adam Back is a well-known name in the cryptocurrency community. The London-born computer scientist was active in the Cypherpunk community as early as 1992 and invented it in 1997 Hashcash：A Proof-of-Work system that later became the core technology of Bitcoin mining.
Back, 55, currently works as a blockchain infrastructure company Blockstream The CEO of , is an important figure in the Bitcoin ecosystem. He is also a Bitcoin treasury company BSTR Holdings The company is in the process of going public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) founded by Cantor Fitzgerald.
According to data from cryptocurrency exchange Arkham, the 1.1 million Bitcoins held by Satoshi Nakamoto are now worth approximately US$73 billion (approximately NT$2.3 trillion), making him one of the richest men on earth.
The client strongly denied: “It’s really not me.”
In the face of the New York Times accusations, Adam Back issued a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) firmly denying it. He wrote: “Dr. Adam Back has always claimed that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto.”
i’m not satoshi, but I was early in laser focus on the positive societal implications of cryptography, online privacy and electronic cash, hence my ~1992 onwards active interest in applied research on ecash, privacy tech on cypherpunks list which led to hashcash and other ideas.
— Adam Back (@adam3us) April 8, 2026
Back said: “I don’t know who Satoshi Nakamoto is, and I think this is a good thing for Bitcoin because it helps Bitcoin be regarded as a new asset class – a mathematically scarce digital commodity.”
Responding to the linguistic analysis evidence presented by Carreyrou, Back countered that it was just “a combination of coincidence and the use of similar phrases by people with similar experiences and interests.” In an interview with the New York Times, he said more directly: “This ultimately proves nothing. I assure you, it is really not me.”
Blockstream also issued a statement in support of its CEO: “Today’s New York Times report is based on indirect interpretation and speculation of some details, rather than clear encryption evidence. Dr. Adam Back has always claimed that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto.”
Experts are divided: no conclusive evidence
The cryptocurrency community reacted to the report with mixed reactions. Professor of Computer Science at University College London Steven Murdoch Said: “There are some signs pointing to him, but there is no conclusive evidence.” Murdoch personally believes that another early Bitcoin developer Hal Finney It is more likely to be Satoshi Nakamoto, because Finney received the first Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi: “As a rule, when testing the system, always send it to yourself first.”
Assistant Professor, Reykjavik University, Iceland Jacky Mallett She believes that Satoshi Nakamoto is “almost certainly more than one person.” She pointed out that the update of the Bitcoin code shows that there are multiple contributors. “I think there is a small group of people behind it, and they understand the financial structure deeper than the outside world thinks.”
It is worth noting that this is not the first time someone has tried to reveal the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. The 2024 HBO documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” once alleged that developers Peter Todd It’s Satoshi Nakamoto, and in the past there were Nick Szabo、Hal Finney Others were named as suspects. Australian computer scientist Craig Wright He had long claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, but his claims were found to be false in late 2024 when he was found guilty of contempt of court for continuing proceedings against the developer.
If true, it will trigger an SEC regulatory storm
If Adam Back is indeed Satoshi Nakamoto, this would raise a host of legal and regulatory issues. Because its $73 billion in Bitcoin holdings could have a significant impact on the market, Back must disclose this fact to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin rose about 4.4% to $71,732 following the announcement, showing that the market seemed unaffected by the news.
Source: KOCPC Chinese