Latest news with #Nakamoto
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Prediction: Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Will Be Worth More Than Warren Buffett by the End of Summer
Key Points The Bitcoin holdings of Satoshi Nakamoto are now valued at $134 billion. Deliberately or not, Nakamoto has demonstrated the immense power of a long-term buy-and-hold strategy for Bitcoin. If the price of Bitcoin hits $130,000 this year, Nakamoto will surpass Warren Buffett in wealth. 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin › Move over Warren Buffett, here comes Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). With Bitcoin recently hitting a new all-time high of $123,000, Nakamoto's Bitcoin holdings are now worth $134 billion. By way of comparison, Buffett's net worth is now estimated at $142 billion, according to Forbes. So all it really takes is Bitcoin hitting a price of $130,000 or so, and Nakamoto will be worth more than Buffett. Given Bitcoin's recent price momentum, Nakamoto could surpass Buffett by the end of summer. That would have important implications for what it means to be a crypto investor. Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? The really fascinating part about all this is that nobody knows the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. This has been the subject of endless speculation, most recently in the form of a 2024 HBO documentary (Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery) that promised to unveil Nakamoto's true identity. It never did. We only know the blockchain wallet where Nakamoto holds 1.1 million Bitcoins. Since the Bitcoin blockchain is transparent and can be inspected at any time, we know that these Bitcoins have not moved since 2010. Moreover, the world has not publicly heard from Nakamoto since 2011, so we don't even know if he's still alive. That's not to say that Nakamoto's Bitcoin wallet won't one day emerge from its dormant state. Maybe he will decide to sell at some point. Just last month, the crypto world was buzzing about a Bitcoin wallet that suddenly "woke up" after 14 years and moved 80,000 Bitcoins worth $8.6 billion. The ultimate buy-and-hold strategy? If you think about it, Satoshi Nakamoto's approach represents the ultimate buy-and-hold investment strategy. Nakamoto mined Bitcoin, stashed it on his laptop, and never touched it again. He had so much trust in the cryptocurrency's long-term potential, that he decided to buy and hold for the long haul. And, now, 16 years later, he's worth nearly as much as legendary investor Warren Buffett. Quite frankly, this wasn't supposed to happen. For much of its history, Bitcoin has been known as a risky, volatile, and highly speculative cryptocurrency. It was exactly the type of asset that seemed to be perfect for short-term trading but not long-term investing. Big-time institutional investors largely shunned it because Bitcoin was simply too risky. But look at what has happened to Bitcoin now. In the minds of many investors, it has become digital gold. It preserves its value wonderfully, even amid volatile market uncertainty. We're seeing this right now, as many institutional investors buy Bitcoin as a response to tariff uncertainty and potential macroeconomic weakness within the U.S. Warren Buffett vs. Bitcoin It's important to point out that Warren Buffett is no fan of Bitcoin. He has called it "rat poison squared." He has firmly avowed that he has never owned any Bitcoin and never will. Again and again, he has said that Bitcoin has no tangible value and that it's basically worthless. In 2022, he said that he wouldn't pay $25 for "all the Bitcoin in the world." Will his thinking change once Satoshi Nakamoto is worth more than him? Or will the timeless wisdom of the beloved "Oracle of Omaha" prove true in the end? From my perspective, it's becoming increasingly difficult to make the case against Bitcoin. Year after year, Bitcoin has been the top-performing asset in the world. As a result, some of the biggest Bitcoin skeptics have now become some of the biggest Bitcoin bulls. Wall Street has bought into Bitcoin. Main Street has bought into Bitcoin. And even the White House has bought into Bitcoin. The consensus right now is that a fully diversified portfolio should have at least a 1% allocation to Bitcoin. I expect that percentage to rise over time. Some asset managers are already boosting the suggested allocation to 2%. And some financial advisors are now suggesting that investors can safely boost that number to 10% or even higher. A paradigm shift for Bitcoin All of this leads me to think that Bitcoin really is in the midst of a major paradigm shift. The world is changing how it thinks about crypto. Governments now view Bitcoin as a strategic asset. Institutional investors now view Bitcoin as part of their long game. And retail investors are speculating less and investing more. Satoshi Nakamoto is leading the way, and by the end of summer, I fully expect him to pass Warren Buffett as one of the richest individuals in the world. 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The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Prediction: Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Will Be Worth More Than Warren Buffett by the End of Summer was originally published by The Motley Fool
Politico
2 days ago
- Business
- Politico
Is ‘Crypto Week' what crypto's inventors had in mind?
With help from Anthony Adragna and Daniella Cheslow 'Crypto Week' on Capitol Hill, as Republicans are calling it, was supposed to help usher in 'the golden age of digital assets' — finally creating a legal foundation for the online markets of tomorrow, a dream of the tech world and very online investors. It hasn't been smooth, though. The marquee GENIUS Act to create a regulatory framework for stablecoins – cryptocurrencies pegged to an asset like the dollar – finally did end up passing on Thursday afternoon, but not before the crypto debate triggered enough GOP infighting to snarl the whole House's agenda for the week. For anyone following the long arc of bitcoin, however, the bigger question isn't about the Hill logistics, but whether this has anything to do with the original goals of cryptocurrency. Crypto was born as a revolution — a way to put value into the hands of the people who use it, rather than have it be controlled by banks, or tycoons, or (ahem) Congress. What's perhaps most ironic about Crypto Week is that the digital currency was designed so that it wouldn't need the imprimatur of politicians and regulators in the first place. Crypto's roots lie in the 2007-8 financial crisis, which sowed a profound distrust in the institutions that were supposed to have kept the global system stable. 'This idea that you could be your own bank resonated with a lot of people,' said Oxford University's Vili Lehdonvirta, one of the first socio-economists to study cryptocurrency. A key feature of cryptocurrencies is that they're decentralized, allowing people to exchange funds without intermediaries like banks. The now-hallowed 2008 white paper that first sketched out a blueprint for bitcoin begins by describing 'A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash' that would work 'without going through a financial institution.' The paper's mysterious author, who went by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and has been subject to fervent speculation regarding his identity, was skeptical of state power as well as bank power. In emails to a mailing list around 2008, Nakamoto said that his invention was 'very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint' and warned that 'governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks [sic].' Cryptocurrency would free users from government-controlled fiat currencies. 'The root problem with conventional currency is … the central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust,' wrote Nakamoto. The current state of the cryptocurrency landscape, though, seems to be a far cry from Nakamoto's original vision. The powerful institutions he eschewed are lining up to be major players in the sector. So is the federal government: President Donald Trump — whose family runs a cryptocurrency firm — issued a March executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve funded by the Treasury. Bank of America and Citibank said this week that they're working on launching stablecoins. What's more, powerful intermediary institutions have sprouted from the cryptocurrency craze. So individual users, rather than managing their own interactions with a transparent blockchain ledger, rely on major exchanges like Binance as an entry point into the market, and store their tokens with popular digital wallet services. 'Bitcoin became everything that it was trying to make obsolete,' said Lehdonvirta. Lehdonvirta first learned about bitcoin in 2009, from an early developer who was working for his brother. (He gained some fame in the space when the New Yorker suggested he could be Nakamoto, which he denied to the New Yorker in 2011, and to DFD on Thursday.) Initially, he thought that bitcoin's design was 'extremely clever' and a 'huge innovation,' but eventually that enthusiasm waned. 'It was trying to get rid of opaque middlemen who rigged markets at the expense of the little person,' Lehdonvirta told DFD. 'Step by step, it recreated those very same structures and the institutions that it was originally intended to circumvent.' He added that egalitarian ideals were thwarted from the early days by moneyed cryptocurrency miners, who use the power of expensive GPUs to amass more bitcoin than a small-time user could. 'This technology has been largely co-opted by all kinds of actors and certain incumbents,' said David Chaum, a cryptographer who's commonly known as the 'godfather of crypto.' He added that 'pressure from the powers that be isn't what we had envisioned.' Yet even for idealists, some departures from the original promise of cryptocurrency might not be all that bad. 'The ideals are very much, for many people, still the same,' said Dan Elitzer, a cryptocurrency venture capitalist. In 2014, he co-led a Massachusetts Institute of Technology group that gave $100 worth of bitcoin to more than 3,000 students. Elitzer wasn't drawn to bitcoin by a radical libertarian bent, but rather saw it as a mechanism to augment access to financial systems, especially in other countries with less stable monetary policies. 'The bet was that it was going to introduce the ability to access digital financial services to billions of people who don't have access otherwise,' he told DFD. Although Elitzer said the 'Crypto Week' frenzy might not have been what early developers envisioned — its focus on stablecoins, for instance, ties crypto closely to the fiat currencies it was designed to replace — he argued that it would also make the U.S. dollar more widely available on a global scale. 'The majority of the world would love to have access to the ability to save and spend in dollars,' he said. Chaum also mentioned that AI might help consumers interact more directly with cryptocurrency trading, without the need for intermediaries. He told DFD, 'One should be optimistic.' House wants to ban TikTok ads in D.C. The House Appropriations Committee is trying to prevent a redux of TikTok's March PR blitz in Washington, when it flooded metro stations with ads to forestall a ban. POLITICO's Anthony Adragna reports that the committee passed an amendment to the pending appropriations bill on Thursday that would prohibit ByteDance, TikTok's Beijing-based parent company, from advertising in public transportation and airports in the D.C. area. Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), who sponsored the amendment, said at a hearing that it 'cracks down on the exploitation of advertising space by Chinese adversaries in transit systems and airports in our Capitol region.' Congress passed a law in 2024 forcing ByteDance to either shut down TikTok's operations in the U.S. or sell the app to buyers not controlled by foreign adversaries, like China. President Donald Trump has delayed the deadline for the ban three times, and said two weeks ago that he was resuming talks with China to keep the app online. TikTok has been fighting for its life in the meantime. Beyond bombarding the metro with ads about how important it is to the economy, it's also run a Super Bowl commercial, rented out billboards and bought an ad in POLITICO's print newspaper. Call for more global tech cops Lawmakers from the House Foreign Affairs Committee introduced a bill Thursday to nearly double the ranks of export control officers at the Bureau of Industry and Security, which they said would help catch diversion of advanced technologies like semiconductors. The bipartisan bill would increase the number of the officers from 11 to 20. It was sponsored by HFAC ranking member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) the chair of HFAC's subcommittee on South and Central Asia Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), subcommittee ranking member Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), and Rep. Jefferson Shreve (R-Ind.). The global semiconductor trade is a vast industry worth more than $600 billion, according to one estimate. But the bill noted that in fiscal year 2024, fewer than a dozen overseas officers conducted more than 1,400 'end-use checks' that verify whether U.S. tech is being legally used overseas. 'Without strong enforcement, our export controls are toothless,' Meeks said in a statement. post of the day THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS Stay in touch with the whole team: Aaron Mak (amak@ Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@ Steve Heuser (sheuser@ Nate Robson (nrobson@ and Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Why is bitcoin soaring? And is it time to invest?
Despite Nakamoto's original vision of bitcoin replacing cash, these days the cryptocurrency is much more akin to a digital version of gold, as the network is far too expensive and slow to be able to use it as a legitimate cash replacement. Indeed, central banks around the world have said cryptocurrencies are unfit for everyday use, with RBA governor Michele Bullock saying it has 'no role' in the Australian economy. Investors originally saw bitcoin as a 'safe haven' asset separated from the fluctuation of markets. However, recently, institutional investors have flocked to the asset class, with about 6 per cent of bitcoin being held in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Why is it rallying? Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile, with their valuation regularly dropping or rising by thousands of dollars in mere minutes. However, the recent rally has been more sustained, thanks largely to the influence of Trump. During his campaign, Trump made no secret of his support for cryptocurrencies, promising to make the US the 'crypto capital of the world'. Once elected, he then enacted several policies to promote crypto, including establishing a strategic bitcoin reserve within US Treasury, and holding a crypto summit at the White House. Loading He also released his own Trump-branded cryptocurrency, which has a market capitalisation of $US1.9 billion. Republicans are now attempting to pass three more crypto-friendly bills – The GENIUS Act, The Clarity Act and The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act – all of which will create a friendlier regulatory environment for crypto traders and companies, including clarifying when digital assets like crypto tokens are considered securities or commodities. Crypto advocates view these bills as the US government's effective endorsement of the sector and a further legitimisation of bitcoin, despite widespread crime in the industry and real-world use cases for cryptocurrencies still few and far between. How much has the price risen? After bitcoin's creation in 2008, you could buy one for just a few cents, with 10,000 bitcoin famously being used to buy two pizzas in early 2010. As of Wednesday afternoon, one bitcoin was worth about $185,000. Since Trump's election, the asset's price has risen by almost $80,000, or 76 per cent. Should you invest? Obviously, the best time to have bought bitcoin was 2009 – and even then, you would have needed to conveniently forget about it until now. But is it still worth buying even with its heady valuation? 'Yes, we think so,' says Justin Lin, investment strategist at ETF provider Global X. '2025 is shaping up to be a landmark year for bitcoin adoption. This year we've seen some serious signs that investors are starting to value the asset for its fundamental strengths rather simply speculating on its price. Loading 'We think bitcoin is on its way to becoming a portfolio staple across the world, and as adoption grows, price discovery will follow.' Global X believes bitcoin will reach a valuation of $US200,000 by midway through next year. Much of this, Lin says, will be driven by traditional investors through bitcoin ETFs, with the current crop of crypto investors mainly consisting of younger, tech-savvy investors. 'By our calculations, only about 20,000 Australians have invested in ASX-listed bitcoin ETFs. That's shockingly low compared to the US. We take it as a sign that our older investment community still has a lot of catching up to do,' he says. How can you invest? There are a number of online bitcoin exchanges that operate both internationally and in Australia. You can sign up to one and buy bitcoin or other crypto. Keep in mind you don't have to purchase a whole one – you can just buy a fraction of a coin. These exchanges allow you to buy, sell, and store your bitcoin, much like an online stockbroker such as CommSec. The bitcoin ETFs are becoming increasingly popular as a way for traditional investors to purchase the digital asset without having to make an exchange account, with the ETFs available to purchase the same way as any other ASX stock. However, chief executive of investment firm VanEck Asia Pacific Arian Neiron said Australian investors seem to be less willing to invest in crypto than their US counterparts. '[Australian] investors are more cautious about bitcoin exposure, particularly when there is price momentum based on sentiment,' he says.
The Age
3 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Why is bitcoin soaring? And is it time to invest?
Despite Nakamoto's original vision of bitcoin replacing cash, these days the cryptocurrency is much more akin to a digital version of gold, as the network is far too expensive and slow to be able to use it as a legitimate cash replacement. Indeed, central banks around the world have said cryptocurrencies are unfit for everyday use, with RBA governor Michele Bullock saying it has 'no role' in the Australian economy. Investors originally saw bitcoin as a 'safe haven' asset separated from the fluctuation of markets. However, recently, institutional investors have flocked to the asset class, with about 6 per cent of bitcoin being held in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Why is it rallying? Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile, with their valuation regularly dropping or rising by thousands of dollars in mere minutes. However, the recent rally has been more sustained, thanks largely to the influence of Trump. During his campaign, Trump made no secret of his support for cryptocurrencies, promising to make the US the 'crypto capital of the world'. Once elected, he then enacted several policies to promote crypto, including establishing a strategic bitcoin reserve within US Treasury, and holding a crypto summit at the White House. Loading He also released his own Trump-branded cryptocurrency, which has a market capitalisation of $US1.9 billion. Republicans are now attempting to pass three more crypto-friendly bills – The GENIUS Act, The Clarity Act and The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act – all of which will create a friendlier regulatory environment for crypto traders and companies, including clarifying when digital assets like crypto tokens are considered securities or commodities. Crypto advocates view these bills as the US government's effective endorsement of the sector and a further legitimisation of bitcoin, despite widespread crime in the industry and real-world use cases for cryptocurrencies still few and far between. How much has the price risen? After bitcoin's creation in 2008, you could buy one for just a few cents, with 10,000 bitcoin famously being used to buy two pizzas in early 2010. As of Wednesday afternoon, one bitcoin was worth about $185,000. Since Trump's election, the asset's price has risen by almost $80,000, or 76 per cent. Should you invest? Obviously, the best time to have bought bitcoin was 2009 – and even then, you would have needed to conveniently forget about it until now. But is it still worth buying even with its heady valuation? 'Yes, we think so,' says Justin Lin, investment strategist at ETF provider Global X. '2025 is shaping up to be a landmark year for bitcoin adoption. This year we've seen some serious signs that investors are starting to value the asset for its fundamental strengths rather simply speculating on its price. Loading 'We think bitcoin is on its way to becoming a portfolio staple across the world, and as adoption grows, price discovery will follow.' Global X believes bitcoin will reach a valuation of $US200,000 by midway through next year. Much of this, Lin says, will be driven by traditional investors through bitcoin ETFs, with the current crop of crypto investors mainly consisting of younger, tech-savvy investors. 'By our calculations, only about 20,000 Australians have invested in ASX-listed bitcoin ETFs. That's shockingly low compared to the US. We take it as a sign that our older investment community still has a lot of catching up to do,' he says. How can you invest? There are a number of online bitcoin exchanges that operate both internationally and in Australia. You can sign up to one and buy bitcoin or other crypto. Keep in mind you don't have to purchase a whole one – you can just buy a fraction of a coin. These exchanges allow you to buy, sell, and store your bitcoin, much like an online stockbroker such as CommSec. The bitcoin ETFs are becoming increasingly popular as a way for traditional investors to purchase the digital asset without having to make an exchange account, with the ETFs available to purchase the same way as any other ASX stock. However, chief executive of investment firm VanEck Asia Pacific Arian Neiron said Australian investors seem to be less willing to invest in crypto than their US counterparts. '[Australian] investors are more cautious about bitcoin exposure, particularly when there is price momentum based on sentiment,' he says.
India.com
3 days ago
- Business
- India.com
You won't believe who just became the 11th richest person in the world? Has more money than Mukesh Ambani, Adani, name is...
Mukesh Ambani eyes major deal! Even Gautam Adani stepped back from race, Reliance to become biggest…, deal is about... Years before the advent of digital currencies, Bitcoin's inventor's true identity has remained one of the most enduring mysteries on the internet. The creator of the world's first decentralized digital financial system is known only by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, and his identity has never been confirmed. The anonymous creator of Bitcoin now controls over 1.096 million bitcoins, which is approximately $129 billion, making him one of the 11 richest men in the world, without ever revealing who they actually are. Satoshi Nakamoto, the unidentified creator of Bitcoin, has now officially made their way into the top 11 richest people in the world after Bitcoin surpassed $120,000 on Sunday. A Cointelegraph report based on data from blockchain analytics company Arkham showed that when Bitcoin debuts over the $120,000 line, Nakamoto's holdings surpassed Michael Dell's, the CEO of Dell Technologies, whose total wealth is estimated at $125.1 billion. What is even stranger is that Nakamoto has never moved a single coin from his original stack even as Bitcoin ballooned in price. Although the Forbes Billionaires List has not added crypto wallets to it's official ranking, Nakamoto's rising wealth is attracting more and more international attention as the price of Bitcoin climbs.
