Satoshi May Have Used a Canadian Bitcoin Exchange

Conor Grogram, head of product business operations at Coinbase has unearthed evidence that suggests Satoshi may have used Cavirtex, an early Canadian bitcoin exchange that was initially purchased by New York-based Coinsetter in 2015 before being subsequently acquired by Kraken in 2016. Grogram used on-chain analysis to determine that a Satoshi wallet that starts with “1PYYj” received bitcoin from Cavirtex, which if everything checks out, would make it the first piece of on-chain data that indicates Satoshi may have used a centralized exchange. It would also be plausible that Satoshi submitted KYC documents to Cavirtex which Kraken might have access to. While Grogram’s hypothesis has not been corroborated by others, he seems to believe there’s a good chance he might be right. “I went through Satoshi Nakamoto’s wallets,” Grogram said. “My best guess is that Satoshi was last active on-chain in 2014. He may have used a Canadian BTC exchange. Kraken may know the identity of Satoshi,” he added. Other sleuths are reviewing Grogram’s findings to determine their accuracy.