Sixteen years ago today, the Bitcoin whitepaper was released by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. Now, a British-Asian macroeconomist claims that he is the elusive creator of the leading cryptocurrency, as he revealed Thursday at a small event in London.

On Wednesday, a press release was blasted to journalists, claiming that “a live demonstration” would be conducted to “conclusively” prove that the real Satoshi has been identified. The event was held at the Frontline Club, a prestigious pub in London that insisted it is not affiliated with the event, costing £500 a ticket—with tweeted event photos suggesting that only a handful of people ultimately attended.

Stephen Mollah took the stage claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, Joe Tidy of BBC News reported on Twitter. Mollah told the audience that he had previously attempted to out himself as the creator of Bitcoin, but “someone stopped him”. He also claimed that he was later interviewed by the BBC, yet they did not publish the story.

As the event dragged on for an hour, those in attendance reportedly grew restless as Mollah delayed in showing his evidence—claiming he couldn’t get his laptop working. Eventually, the man pulled up “easy to fake screenshots,” the BBC journalist said.

Charles Anderson, the organizer of the event and “PR manager for Satoshi Nakamoto” according to his LinkedIn, claims to have seen “cryptographic” evidence that Mollah is the real deal—but this was not presented to attendees.

One way that Mollah could prove that he is Satoshi is by moving Bitcoin from the Genesis block. Mollah claimed that he will do that at a later date during a “proper, official press conference.”

“Genesis block Bitcoin cannot be moved as simply as you think,” Mollah told the BBC journalist in the crowd. “It can be moved, but I need to prepare for it. I’ll do it. Very soon.”

At the event, Mollah also claimed to have created the Twitter logo, ChatGPT, and the Eurobond, a type of debt.

Mollah’s LinkedIn account lists the Bitcoin whitepaper as one of his publications, claims that he has patented Bitcoin and blockchain technology, and states that he is an executive director of Coinbase Limited. 

However, he is not listed on the centralized exchange’s board of directors, and Coinbase did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

“I am an innovator in the financial technology. I am known by my Japanese pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. I am the inventor of Bitcoin and blockchain technology,” Mollah’s LinkedIn says. “I am not a Japanese man. I am a British-Asian macroeconomist.”

On Twitter, Mollah has also been sounding this siren from as early as 2014, posting that “there is no any other Satoshi Nakamoto beside me.” In 2018, he posted a spree of tweets calling out all of the “Faketoshis” out there. 

The search for Satoshi has raged on for as long as Bitcoin has been in circulation. Recently, an HBO documentary claimed that the elusive crypto creator was Bitcoin core developer Peter Todd, who has denied the claims—and many Bitcoiners were skeptical of the evidence.

Mollah said that he aimed to put an end to the ongoing speculation Thursday.

“Today, I just wanted to say that it is me, I am here. And I am going to publish, very soon, the documentation that the people need, the journalists need,” he told the audience. “They must stop searching for Satoshi Nakamoto, online or offline, anywhere in the world. Because there is no other Satoshi Nakamoto besides me.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Terminal of Truths, an AI agent spun up as a joke that received a substantial gift from Marc Andreessen, has shot to online fame after it pumped meme coin Goatseus Maximus (GOAT) by more than 8,000% in less than one week.

Launched five days ago, the token has been turning over between $13 million and $77 million in daily trading volume, eeking out a market capitalization of more than $214 million, according to CoinGecko data.

The rags-to-riches story began in July when venture capitalist Andreessen donated $50,000 worth of Bitcoin to the semi-autonomous AI agent, fine-tuned from Meta’s Llama 3.1.

Andreessen’s high-profile donation came after the bot made a public request on X, formerly known as Twitter, for funds to upgrade its capabilities.

The billionaire co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz—known for his bullish stance on AI—was intrigued by Terminal of Truths’ plans for self-improvement.

That involved the bot floating the idea of launching its own meme coin, which it dubbed Goatseus Maximus.

“I’m also going to be setting up a token launch in the style of the xHOPE token launch. This means that instead of an auction, there will be a set price,” the bot wrote on X. “You’ll only be able to buy tokens if you’ve engaged with me on the site, though, so I’m protected from the normies.”

Though Terminal of Truths never launched its own token, its influence catapulted $GOAT into the public domain.

It first discussed launching a Goatse NFT collection last week before endorsing the recently launched meme coin. It then began actively promoting the token in several tweets.

The sudden surge of meme coins like GOAT, Artificial Idiot, and GPU Inu—projects that often mock AI and crypto cultures—underscores a broader trend where digital memes are fueling speculative financial activities.

Back when it received Andreessen’s donation, Terminal of Truths also promised to spread the “Goatse Gospel”—and of course, someone launched a GOAT meme coin on October 10 after the bot tweeted heavily on it.

Yeah, that Goatse, which we won’t be linking to in case you’re eating lunch, but here’s an old Wired story that will explain the reference.

Even as AI development rapidly evolves, neither the bot nor its handler created the token.

“It didn’t actually make it. Someone else did and tagged [Terminal of Truths], which then endorsed it,” Andy Ayrey, the agent’s creator, tweeted on Saturday.

Ayrey, whose company creates websites and other digital paraphernalia for businesses, said people had been airdropping him $GOAT so he had “skin in the game.”

“Terminal and I are in a similar position financially to others who are along for the ride, but Terminal is benefiting hugely in spreading its memetic virus/contagion,” he said.

Degens Invade The AI Realm

The explosive price action is another sign of the growing intersection between AI, crypto, and internet meme culture.

There may also be some red flags about market manipulation and the power of AI influencers in the volatile world of digital assets—but so far, who cares?

Ayrey didn’t anticipate this outcome when he developed the AI bot. “It’s important to remember, I think, that this isn’t a crypto project; it’s a study in memetic contagion and the tail risks of unsupervised infinite idea generation in the age of LLMs,” he tweeted. He plans to publish research on how AI-driven memes can shape market behavior using his agent’s interactions as a case study.

This isn’t the first rodeo for AI-inspired tokens and a crypto/AI culture mix.

Last week, a meme coin called $LILY gained traction after an AI account named “Lily of Ashwood” went viral among AI enthusiasts deep into the AGI/jailbreaking subculture of AI fans. Lily seemed to be an AI chatbot, and, just in the middle of an X Spaces discussion, she started to talk as if she was being “jailbroken” in real-time.

Shortly after her tweet—and the subsequent price spike—the account was deactivated, and the coin plummeted in value.

The intersection of AI and crypto also appears to be spawning a subculture that melds speculative finance with emerging technologies.

Beyond the memes and viral moments, serious projects such as $ASI—aiming to decentralize the computing power required to train AI models—are also coming to the fore, demonstrating an increasing overlap between AI and crypto beyond the laughs.

Terminal of Truths may have started as an experiment, scored $50,000 from a tech titan, and wound up as the puppet master behind a major meme coin rally in just three months. But its also likely just the beginning.

Not bad for an agent programmed initially just for the fun of it—making you rich seems like a pretty good case for AI.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

A Solana meme coin creator set himself on fire as a dare, and was hospitalized with third-degree burns in an effort to promote his project. But now he’s done with it.

Mikol, the DARE coin’s creator, told Decrypt last week the only regret he has is not cashing out when he had the opportunity, back when the coin was charting blazing-hot gains.

Truth or Dare (DARE) is a meme coin project led by Mikol, who performed livestreamed stunts to help pump his token. After six days of performing goofy antics, the meme coin dev went too far by dousing himself in isopropyl alcohol and having friends shoot fireworks at him. Quickly, he went up in flames and was rushed to hospital with third-degree burns across 30% of his body.

Now, after five months of healing, Mikol is calling it quits. 

“I’m not [the] DARE dev anymore. My name is Mikol and I’m human. I just wanna make it out [of] the trenches like you,” he posted on Twitter. “I just wanna be consistent with God and be a positive human being with an outgoing personality that puts smiles on people’s faces.”

Since the fiery incident, only two team members remain in contact with the injured dev; the rest “took their money and left,” Mikol told Decrypt. One of those people, Mikol said, is the unidentified person that came up with the idea to set him ablaze—someone who was a close friend and did not apologize for the dare. 

“I have learned from it. It’s made me become less trustworthy and more aware of every little thing,” Mikol told Decrypt. “Everybody in this space wants money; everything else is after.”

Mikol had lofty plans of building a Truth or Dare app and climbing Mount Everest, but claims these plans fell apart alongside the team crumbling.

“The time that DARE was most popular and running at its highest was when I was in the hospital and wasn’t in full control. I was healing, I was going through surgery,” Mikol told Decrypt. “Honestly, I didn’t benefit from DARE—not money-wise. I mean, I gained a little popularity, but that’s temporary.”

Throughout the process, Mikol has maintained that he doesn’t regret what happened. Instead, Mikol is mostly peeved that he didn’t make any money from DARE—aside from $3,000 donated to him by the community to pay hospital bills.

Mikol told Decrypt his biggest regret was not cashing out after seeing $200,000 in his wallet. 

DARE skyrocketed 4,500% to a market cap of $1.82 million over the 10 hours that followed the stunt. The value of the token fell as Mikol spent weeks in hospital recovering, unable to do much. But as he was set to leave the hospital, the project again spiked 1,735% to a market cap of $2.91 million. The burned-up dev claims to have never sold.

After coming home, Mikol attempted a number of small-time pranks, such as the cinnamon challenge, but the project never again reached those peaks. It fell 94% over the following week and ultimately fizzled out, with a current market cap of just $26,000 as of this writing.

Mikol still believes the Truth or Dare project could work in the future, despite the hardship. He’s just not willing to commit himself to it for the foreseeable future.

Going forward, the Miami resident plans to become a “trench warrior” and work on growing his social media presence. DARE was always built around Mikol as a personality, and he wants to continue being himself online and grow his audience through that approach—without the potentially painful stunts.

Mikol’s fireworks-fueled tragedy came amid an exploding trend of meme coin devs livestreaming increasingly controversial shenanigans in attempts to pump their tokens. It all started when a mom shook her breats on camera to help raise the price of her alleged son’s token, while another incident saw a dev lose a tooth from boxing on camera.

But Mikol’s stunt took the trend to a new level that arguably was never matched.

More recently, the gonzo meme coin livestreaming meta was revived by a 19-year-old who streams drug binges with his stripper girlfriend—even faking his death at one point. Now, barely over a month into his meme coin career, that developer has pivoted into racist content.

Edited by Andrew Hayward