Bitcoin community slams Tucker Carlson after claim Satoshi Nakamoto tied to CIA
TL;DR
Carlson expressed his fear that Bitcoin will become a “scam” controlled by financial and political elites.
The commentator prefers gold, claiming he doesn’t invest in something whose “mysterious” founder is unknown.
Bitcoin experts responded that Satoshi’s identity is irrelevant thanks to the open-source and auditable nature of the code.
Great controversy was generated by the well-known American conservative political commentator, Tucker Carlson, after reviving one of the crypto sector’s oldest conspiracy theories. Carlson suggested during a Turning Point USA event that the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, could be linked to U.S. intelligence agencies.
The commentator’s statements pointed to a deep distrust in the origin of the leading cryptocurrency. “I fear that Bitcoin will become… a scam of sorts run by a coalition of financial beneficiaries… and the politicians they control,” Carlson stated.
The host defined himself as a “gold buyer,” justifying his stance on the lack of transparency regarding Bitcoin’s creator. “I try to limit myself to things I understand and nobody can explain to me who Satoshi was,” Carlson said. “I grew up in DC… so CIA, that’s my guess. Can’t prove it.”
Carlson added that he is concerned about “investing in something whose founder is mysterious and has billions of dollars of unused Bitcoin.“ Nakamoto’s identity has remained unknown since the white paper’s publication in 2008. According to data from Arkham Intelligence cited in the source, the wallet cluster linked to Satoshi holds approximately 1.096 million BTC.
The Bitcoin community downplays the importance of Satoshi’s identity
The reaction from Bitcoin defenders, known as “Bitcoiners,” was immediate. They argued that Carlson’s comments ignore the cryptocurrency’s central premise: its trustless and open-source design.
The community’s main argument is that Bitcoin’s design is verifiable by anyone, which negates the need to trust its creator. Marty Bent, founder of the media company TFTC, responded directly to the controversy.
“Tucker Carlson will come around when he realizes that it doesn’t matter if the CIA created Bitcoin,” Bent wrote. “Even if the CIA did (it didn’t), anyone… can audit the code to determine whether it does what it’s supposed to do. That’s all that matters.”
Although Tucker Carlson believes Satoshi Nakamoto is the CIA, the community insists that Bitcoin’s strength lies in its decentralized and auditable protocol, not in its founder’s identity. At the time of the original coverage, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at around $108,829.
Filed under: News - @ October 23, 2025 5:28 pm