As the debate over Satoshi Nakamoto’s true identity continues, a new lawsuit is putting pressure on the U.S. government to reveal what it may already know. On April 7, 2025, attorney and crypto advocate James A. Murphy filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the District Court for the District of Columbia. The suit seeks the release of documents allegedly tied to a government interview with individuals claiming to be the creators of Bitcoin. Notably, the case centers around a striking claim made by DHS Special Agent Rana Saoud during the 2019 OffshoreAlert Conference. In the court filings , Saoud stated that DHS agents traveled to California to interview not just one person using the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym, but a group of four individuals involved in Bitcoin’s creation. “One of our agents… was [a] really, really smart, forward-leaning agent, and he goes, ‘I want to go interview Satoshi Nakamoto,’ ” Saoud said. “They realized that he wasn’t alone in creating this. There were three other people.” Earlier in February, Murphy had submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to DHS, seeking access to any records of such interviews and other documentation related to the identity of Bitcoin’s creator. Although DHS acknowledged receipt of the request, it failed to respond within the timeframe required by law, leading to the lawsuit. Murphy, who is also a cryptocurrency investor and a legal commentator on digital asset regulations, argues that the requested records are of “immense public importance”, especially amid growing government interest in Bitcoin. The complaint further highlighted key developments such as President Trump’s March 6 Executive Order to establish a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” and ongoing legislative efforts in nearly 20 states to authorize public investment in Bitcoin. “ Given the massive public and private investment in Bitcoin, it is important for Mr. Murphy and the public to understand better what the federal government knows about the identity of the actor(s) responsible for creating Bitcoin,” the filing states. If proven true, the claim that DHS interviewed the real creators of Bitcoin nearly 16 years after its release, could send shockwaves through the crypto world, with some fearing that unmasking Nakamoto might threaten Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos. That said, this isn’t the first time individuals have been publicly named as Nakamoto. In October 2024, HBO’s documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” controversially claimed Canadian programmer Peter Todd was the mastermind behind Bitcoin. Todd later denied the allegations and reportedly went into hiding due to security concerns. Elsewhere, on February 15, deBanked editor-in-chief Sean Murray proposed that Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was the real Satoshi Nakamoto, offering an extensive timeline of events and coincidences to support his theory.
