Movie ‘Killing Satoshi’ announced as Bitcoin founder close to becoming the world’s 10th richest person

The quest to unmask Bitcoin’s mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto is coming to the big screen.

A new conspiracy thriller dubbed “Killing Satoshi” will start filming in London in October, and is set to hit box offices in 2026.

First reported by Variety, the film is backed by producer-turned-crypto-mogul Ryan Kavanaugh, who has financed other big-screen projects like “The Social Network,” and “Fast and Furious.”

Doug Liman, the man behind “The Bourne Identity,” will direct the film, which stars Casey Affleck and Pete Davidson.

“This is not just a movie about Bitcoin and its elusive and mysterious origins but really about what it stands for,” Kavanaugh told Variety, comparing it to his work in ”The Social Network,” which dramatised Facebook’s origin story.

“This should equally be a look into the world of what Bitcoin really is.”

“Killing Satoshi” will explore the theory that powerful forces — governments, Wall Street, Silicon Valley — have their own reasons for ensuring Satoshi’s identity never surfaces.

As Liman puts it, the film will follow “unlikely antiheroes taking on the most powerful people on the planet in an epic battle that strikes at the core of what is money and who controls it.”

The news about the upcoming film comes just as Bitcoin’s mysterious creator eyes up the top 10 Forbes richest list.

The untouched fortune

Nakamoto’s fortune has been one of the main reasons behind the long-running quest to find out who created Bitcoin.

Wallets attributed to Nakamoto estimate that the creator or creators have a 1 million Bitcoin stash. That fortune has the potential to place the creator in the Forbes top 10 richest list.

At Bitcoin’s current price of about $110,700, coins attributed to Nakamoto place the creator’s wealth at around $110 billion, landing it in 15th place, ahead of former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

For Satoshi to crack the top 10, however, Bitcoin would need to top $150,000 per coin — an important 25% jump from today’s level.

Ironically, if Bitcoin reaches those levels, Nakamoto will overtake none other than Warren Buffet — the 10th richest person in the world with a $150 billion net worth, who has called Bitcoin “rat poison,” and a “gambling token.”

Bitwise, Bernstein and Standard Chartered have all projected that the top cryptocurrency will hit $200,000 before 2026.

The first trillionaire

Some predictions send Satoshi flying even further up the list.

Fundstrat head of research turned Ethereum treasury shill Tom Lee has predicted that Bitcoin will top $500,000 in the next five years, while crypto angel investor Arthur Hayes says $1 million per coin is within reach.

At $1 million per coin, Satoshi would become the world’s first trillionaire, doubling Elon Musk’s current fortune of roughly $415 billion.

Hunting for Satoshi

Hollywood’s latest, albeit fictionalised, hunt for Satoshi adds to a long tail of people and projects in the real world who have attempted to unmask Bitcoin’s creator.

In fact, 2024 became the year of guessing who Satoshi could be.

In October, the Bitcoin community went berserk when a highly touted HBO documentary titled “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” aired, pointing the finger at Peter Todd, a Bitcoin developer, as the anonymous creator of the now $2.2 trillion asset.

“The evidence simply led me to Todd,” Hoback said in an interview with DL News. “Todd has done an excellent job at muddying the waters in preparation for this moment.”

Todd, however, pushed back against the claim that was Nakamoto.

“His evidence is incredibly flimsy – conspiracy-thinking-level flimsy,” Todd told DL News.

Numerous guesses

Others have also asked themselves: Is it Jack Dorsey or Elon Musk?

Some have even claimed the CIA is behind Bitcoin, while Nick Szabo, Len Sassaman, and Hal Finney have also had their names thrown into the hat.

Self-proclaimed Nakamotos also exist. The most infamous is Australian developer Craig Wright, who took his claims to court. Last year, a UK judge ruled Wright is not Bitcoin’s creator.

There’s also Stephen Mollah, who held a meeting at a private club in London to prove to journalists he was the creator of Bitcoin.

He couldn’t manage to make his computer work, as our reporter who covered the event noted.

Pedro Solimano is DL News’ Buenos Aires-based markets correspondent. Got at a tip? Email him at psolimano@dlnews.com.