How much bitcoin does Satoshi have? The genesis block, the Patoshi estimate and what the chain shows
How much bitcoin does Satoshi have?
Nobody can prove how much bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto holds. The widely cited figure of about 1 million BTC is an estimate from Sergio Lerner's 2013 Patoshi research, which he described as made "at eyesight". The genesis address holds 107.66 BTC by Blockchain.com's count, 50 of it unspendable.
Piece published Reviewed by CryptoGuardz Register Desk, editorial desk
Nobody knows exactly, and no explorer can show it. The figure usually quoted, about 1 million BTC, is an estimate from Sergio Demian Lerner's "Patoshi" research, published on 17 April 2013, in which he wrote that he estimated the fortune "at eyesight". The one address tied to Satoshi with certainty, the genesis address, held 107.66 BTC on 14 October 2026, and 50 of those can never move.
The block data below was read from mempool.space, Blockstream and Blockchain.com on 14 October 2026, at chain height 971,395. The research was read on its author's own site the same day. Nothing here is investment advice.
What does the genesis block show?
Block 0 was timestamped 3 January 2009 at 18:15:05 UTC and carries one transaction: a 50 BTC reward. Its coinbase field holds the line Satoshi embedded in it, decoded from the raw script:
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
Those 50 BTC are unspendable. Bitcoin Core never adds the genesis output to the set of spendable coins, with a comment in `validation.cpp` that reads "Special case for the genesis block, skipping connection of its transactions (its coinbase is unspendable)".
How much is in the genesis address today?
The genesis reward was paid to a public key, and the address derived from that key is 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa. Other people have sent small amounts to it ever since; the address has received 80,376 outputs. The explorers count it two ways:
| Source, 14 October 2026 | Balance | Includes the genesis 50 BTC? |
|---|---|---|
| Blockchain.com | 107.66273215 BTC | Yes |
| mempool.space | 57.65236381 BTC | No |
| Blockstream | 57.65236381 BTC | No |
| Outputs received (mempool.space) | 80,376 | No |
| Outputs ever spent | 0 | Not applicable |
The difference is 50.01036834 BTC. Of that, 50 BTC is the genesis reward, which mempool.space and Blockstream leave out because it never entered the spendable set. The cause of the remaining 0.01036834 BTC gap between the two counts is not verified. Nothing has ever left the address. Every coin in it beyond the first 50 was sent by somebody else, so the balance says nothing about Satoshi's wealth and a great deal about people's habits.
Where does the 1 million BTC estimate come from?
From Lerner's 2013 post, "The Well Deserved Fortune of Satoshi Nakamoto". His method was "tracking the ExtraNonce fields in the coinbase field of the coinbase transaction" across early blocks, plotted by block number. He found one miner whose blocks formed a distinct, steady pattern. That pattern is what later became known as Patoshi. His own wording on the size of the fortune:
I estimate at eyesight that Satoshi fortune is around 1M Bitcoins, or 100M USD at current exchange rate.
The post is careful about its limits. It says "I have only analyzed and printed graphs from block 0 upto block 36288", and that "I can't assure with 100% certainty that the all the black dots are owned by Satoshi". It also counts that "from the 1814400 BTC awarded, 1148800 BTC has never been spent (63%)", which is a figure for every miner in that range, not for the Patoshi miner alone. That those unspent coins are the mystery miner's is, in the post's words, a supposition "(but have not checked it yet)".
Lerner returned to the subject in 2020. "The Patoshi Mining Machine", 22 August 2020, reports re-mining the pattern blocks and gives a count: "Total Patoshi blocks : 10025", within "the first 13.2K blocks". That post does not convert the blocks into a BTC total. A figure of about 1.1 million BTC is widely attributed to Lerner in press coverage; it was not found on his own pages read today, so it is not verified here.
Why is the estimate not proof?
Three reasons, all in the research itself. The pattern shows that one entity mined those blocks; it does not name the entity. Lerner calls it Satoshi's fortune by inference, and says he cannot be 100% sure. The count covers the first tens of thousands of blocks, so any later mining is outside it. And the coins sit in thousands of separate outputs, each paid to its own key, with no public link between them and the genesis address.
So the status of each figure differs. The 50 BTC genesis reward and the 107.66 BTC balance are on-chain facts, checked on 14 October 2026. The 1 million BTC figure is Lerner's 2013 estimate. The 10,025 blocks are his 2020 count. The 1.1 million figure is not verified.
How much of the supply is that?
If the 1 million estimate held, it would be about 5% of the 20,098,112.5 BTC the schedule has issued by block 971,395, a figure worked through on how much bitcoin is left to mine. That is arithmetic on an estimate, and it inherits all of the estimate's uncertainty.
What would happen if those coins moved?
Every output is public, so a spend from an early Patoshi-pattern block would be visible to anyone running a node, within minutes. That visibility cuts both ways. Scammers routinely claim to be Satoshi, or to sell "Satoshi-era" coins, and the only proof that would count is a signature from one of those early keys. Anyone offering coins or recovery services on the strength of a Satoshi story is covered by the warnings on the crypto scam recovery page. What an explorer can and cannot tell about who owns an address is set out on is bitcoin untraceable.
Quick answers
How much bitcoin does Satoshi have?
Unknown. The common figure, about 1 million BTC, is an estimate from Sergio Lerner's 2013 Patoshi research, made "at eyesight" from blocks 0 to 36,288.
What is in Satoshi's genesis address?
107.66273215 BTC on 14 October 2026 by Blockchain.com's count, including the unspendable 50 BTC genesis reward. Nothing has ever been spent from it.
Has Satoshi ever moved the coins?
No output has left the genesis address. Whether any Patoshi-pattern coins moved is not verified here, because the set of outputs is an estimate.
What is the Patoshi pattern?
A distinct extra-nonce pattern in early block coinbases that Lerner tied to one miner. His 2020 count is 10,025 blocks in the first 13.2K. See what bitcoin is backed by for how mining issues coins.
Sources
- Sergio Demian Lerner, The Well Deserved Fortune of Satoshi Nakamoto, bitslog, 17 April 2013, retrieved 14 October 2026
- Sergio Demian Lerner, The Patoshi Mining Machine, bitslog, 22 August 2020, retrieved 14 October 2026
- mempool.space API, genesis block 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f, retrieved 14 October 2026
- mempool.space API, genesis coinbase transaction, retrieved 14 October 2026
- mempool.space API, address 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa, retrieved 14 October 2026
- Blockstream Esplora API, address 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa, retrieved 14 October 2026
- Blockchain.com query API, address balance 10766273215 satoshis, retrieved 14 October 2026
- Bitcoin Core source, validation.cpp, genesis coinbase handling, retrieved 14 October 2026
- mempool.space API, chain tip height 971,395, retrieved 14 October 2026
About this piece
Compiled by the CryptoGuardz register team from the sources listed above. Research and drafting are AI-assisted and reviewed by a named editor before publication. Nothing here is a recommendation to gamble. If a figure or a reading is wrong, tell us and the correction is logged in public.