A claim has spread on X, formerly Twitter, that 1,096,000 BTC believed to be held by Satoshi Nakamoto could be stolen, but experts drew a line, saying it is realistically impossible.

According to blockchain media outlet U.Today on Aug. 18 local time, at current prices the holdings are estimated to be worth $70.43 billion, or about 99.14 trillion won.

The controversy spread further with claims that simply putting 24 words in the right order could net $70 billion. Some users treated it as a chance that would never come again, but researchers pointed out that the premise is not realistic to begin with. Even with computing power capable of generating 1 trillion combinations per second, calculations show it would take about 13.8 billion years to find a specific 24-word seed phrase with a 50 percent probability. That is effectively comparable to the age of the universe.

Satoshi's bitcoin is not structured to be accessed with a single seed phrase in the first place. The widely used BIP-39 mnemonic standard emerged after the bitcoin creator left the project. Key generation methods differed in 2009 to 2010, and Satoshi's coins are distributed across more than 22,000 independent legacy P2PK (Pay-to-Public-Key) addresses.

As a result, an attacker would have to compromise thousands of wallets individually rather than break into a single wallet. The assets have not moved for more than 15 years, and even a small transfer could deliver a major shock to the market.

The debate has extended beyond network cryptographic security to how individuals store assets. Adam Back (아담 백), inventor of the Hashcash system, pointed out that hardware wallet companies are weakening security structures by chasing marketing trends and supporting thousands of altcoins. He said many altcoins lack advanced security mechanisms such as bitcoin’s multisignature or Schnorr signatures, leading developers to design structures to the "lowest common denominator."

Back stressed that the simple, segregated design of bitcoin-only devices reduces such vulnerabilities. He argued that bitcoin-only hardware wallets can focus on protecting the bitcoin protocol and do not expose users to third-party technology risks.

In the end, the debate revealed two things at once. The idea that Satoshi’s wallet can be stolen through random guessing misreads both mathematical security and the actual wallet structure. The security controversy surrounding large holding wallets is also spreading into a broader discussion among users about which assets to self-custody and under what structure.

The fact that anyone can perfectly guess 24 random words in a row and get $70B is insane pic.twitter.com/3sViDdOMKp