The Guidance
- Did the federal agents meet with the Bitcoin inventor?
- Many Bitcoin advocates say keep the identity secret.
- Bitcoin is rapidly becoming a fixture in the financial system.
A version of this story appeared in our The Guidance newsletter on April 21. Sign up here.
Somewhere in Washington there’s a vault with proof of extraterrestrial life and the truth about the assassination of John F. Kennedy,
Oh, and one more thing: the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.
Yes, that’s right. Satoshi has become an X file.
Or, at least that’s the vibe coming from a Virginia lawyer’s claim that the US government has known who invented Bitcoin for at least six years.
Intriguing possibility
The bid to get the US Department of Homeland Security to divulge everything it knows about an apparent meeting between federal agents and Satoshi will probably go nowhere.
And yet James Murphy, a crypto-loving lawyer who posts on X to his 46,000 followers under the handle MetaLawMan, has swung open the door on an intriguing possibility — is Satoshi’s identity far more known that we think, and if so, what does that mean?
This is no small thing.
President Donald Trump, the self-styled crypto president, has quickly delivered the industry every policy move it’s wanted, including a nascent Bitcoin strategic reserve that may be topped up by tariff revenue.
Moreover, his administration, working in tandem with Republican allies on Capitol Hill, is laying out a plan to integrate digital assets into the US financial system in a way that seemed impossible not too long ago.
Bitcoin reserves
If that wasn’t enough, a number of states are advancing legislation to build Bitcoin reserves of their own.
Just last week, Arizona lawmakers moved one step away from being the first state to make this happen, Kyle Baird reported.
And, of course, Wall Street is keen on capturing market share in the burgeoning asset class. Charles Schwab just said it was going to launch spot trading features for crypto.
Even as Bitcoin changes the markets, we still don’t know who created it.
For many in crypto, this is how it should be.
When Murphy filed his lawsuit this month to support his Freedom of Information request about the supposed meeting, many Bitcoin supporters were miffed.
“No one needs to know the identity of Satoshi,” said ZachXBT, the noted crypto muckraker, posted on X.
No one needs to know the identity of Satoshi.
By you attempting to obtain documents via lawsuit to potentially dox Satoshi just makes you look like an attention seeking clown trying to get clicks.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) April 7, 2025
Another user wrote that Murphy should just let things lie. “No need to stir the pot. What are you trying to gain from this?”
If Bitcoin had remained a sideshow, perhaps the mystery would endure.
But now the asset, worth $1.7 trillion, is rapidly becoming a key policy priority of the Trump administration, as well as a fixture in the markets.
The recording of a conference in 2019 in which a federal agent recounted meeting with a quartet of individuals who may constitute “Satoshi Nakamoto” is bound to reenergise sleuths.
Bitcoin maxis may not like it, but the quest goes on.
Edward Robinson is the story editor for DL News. Contact the author at ed@dlnews.com.
