Satoshi Nakamoto drops to 18th richest – What BTC’s 30% slide means

Key Takeaways 

How much did Bitcoin’s drop affect Satoshi Nakamoto?

BTC’s fall cut Satoshi’s holdings from $137B to $95B, reflecting over $43B in unrealized losses.

What’s the potential impact? 

Per Peter Schiff, the ongoing losses could limit crypto donors’ influence in the midterm elections

The anonymous creator of the Bitcoin network, popularly known as Satoshi Nakamoto, has recorded about $43 billion in paper losses following the Q4 drawdown. 

Satoshi Nakamoto still holds 1.096 million Bitcoin [BTC], which has remained unchanged for several years. At the October peak of $126k, the holdings were valued near $137 billion, placing the entity among the world’s top ten richest individuals.

However, with BTC price declining by over 30% to $86k, Nakamoto’s holdings value contracted to $95 billion- An over $43 billion loss in paper value in just a few weeks. 

At the current valuation, Satoshi Nakamoto would be ranked the 18th-wealthiest “person” in the world, just above Mukesh Ambani ($92.5 billion) but below Michael Dell ($97 billion). 

A year of extreme wealth creation

Despite the current headwinds and correction, BTC still remained up +400% when measured from cycle lows of $16k back during the crypto winter of 2022. 

According to Henley & Partners’ report, as of the market prices on the 30th of June (BTC at $110k at that time), there were 241k crypto millionaires, most driven by the BTC surge. 

In fact, out of this band, over half or 145K millionaires, attributed their status to BTC. The number of BTC-based millionaires increased by 70% year-over-year. 

Approximately 17 people became billionaires and 254 centi-millionaires solely by holding BTC. However, if they hadn’t cashed out, the current drawdown had slashed their wealth by 30% or more. 

In fact, with such massive wealth, some players become even more active to push pro-Bitcoin and crypto policies.

Wealth and political influence collide

Players like the Winklevoss twins, Founders of Gemini exchange, doubled down to support pro-crypto lawmakers ahead of the U.S midterm elections.

However, long-time BTC critic Peter Schiff warned that if the correction extends, crypto donors’ losses could cap their influence in Congress. 

“Once political support is gone, the bubble will deflate even faster.”

That said, Glassnode noted that the key levels to watch were the True Market Mean ($81.3k) and Realized Price ($56k). 

It remains to be seen whether the macro front will allow for a sustainable recovery of risk assets, including crypto.