Bitcoin price rise makes creator Satoshi Nakamoto one of world’s richest billionaires

The mysterious unknown creator of bitcoin who goes by the name Satoshi Nakomoto is among the world’s richest people as the cryptocurrency booms.

Bitcoin has pulled back from its tear towards $20,000 but is still trading above $19,000, according to the Coindesk bitcoin price index (BPI) at pixel time.

Read more: This bank analyst believes bitcoin will be a niche asset for tech nerds

And calculations by experts over at Quartz estimate the riches of the anonymous mind behind it at as much as $19.4bn. That’s based on estimates that Satoshi owns 980,000 untouched bitcoin.

That would place the anonymous man or woman as the 44th richest person in the world, based on Forbes annual rich list, ahead of Saudi billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed (who incidently branded bitcoin the “next Enron”), high profile investor Carl Ichan, steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, and many more.

Bitcoin has already made billionaires of the Winklevoss twins.