A $2 Million Question With No Answer
Somebody is spending serious money to sell America on Bitcoin — and they don't want you to know who.
The Nakamoto Project, a little-known nonprofit registered in Sheridan, Wyoming, began placing full-page and quarter-page ads in the Wall Street Journal in late August. The campaign runs 12 weeks and includes six full-page color ads and 24 quarter-page color ads, plus a series of six essays by what the group calls 'leading thinkers in Bitcoin.' Based on the Journal's 2026 advertising rate card — reviewed by Fortune — the standard pre-discount price for that media buy comes to approximately $2.17 million: roughly $181,000 per full-page color ad and $45,200 per quarter-page color ad.
The Journal's parent, Dow Jones, declined to disclose the terms of any specific advertising agreement.
The Numbers Don't Add Up
The Nakamoto Project was founded in 2023 and carries tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status under the category of 'educational institutions and related activities.' Its public filings tell a lean story: the organization reported $275,000 in contributions during its first year and spent just over $204,000 across 2023 and 2024. Of that spending, $180,457 — more than 88% — went to executive compensation and contract labor. Advertising and promotion received $12,313, or roughly 6%.
The public filing lists a single contributor for 2023, suggesting the project's seed money came from one source. Federal law permits charities to redact donor names from public copies of their returns, so that source remains unknown. The organization's 2025 filing has not yet been made public.
When Fortune asked Nakamoto Project president Colin Brown about the campaign's financing, he said it was 'funded by the generosity of Bitcoiners at large' and that the nonprofit received 'generous donations, both large and small, from people that are mission-aligned.' Brown and chief editor Troy Cross did not respond to follow-up questions about finances and operations.
Who's Behind the Curtain?
The organization's leadership carries credible credentials. Brown previously worked on national and global advertising campaigns for brands including Nike and 20th Century Fox. Cross is a fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute and a philosophy professor at Reed College. Andrew Perkins, head of research, is a professor of marketing and international business at Washington State University. The project's tax return was prepared by Satoshi Pacioli Accounting Services, a Bitcoin-focused firm.
Despite the campaign's scale, the Nakamoto Project's X account has just over 2,000 followers and has posted fewer than 10 times since its creation in July 2023.
The Journal's print circulation is estimated at more than half a million copies. Photos of the ads have already circulated widely on social media — which, as Fortune notes, may itself be evidence the campaign is working.
The Market Reads the Fine Print
Bitcoin has no corporate marketing budget. What it has is a growing ecosystem of advocates with financial stakes in its adoption, and the Nakamoto Project is the latest vehicle for that kind of soft-power outreach. There is nothing illegal about anonymous donors funding a 501(c)(3) educational campaign — the law explicitly permits it.
But free-market principles cut both ways: transparency is the foundation of trust, and capital that hides its identity invites exactly the scrutiny it seems to be avoiding. If the case for Bitcoin is as strong as the ads suggest, the people writing the checks should be willing to put their names on it. Until then, the most-read line in this campaign may be the one the Nakamoto Project itself chose: 'read the fine print.'
