Police and tax investigators have raided the Sydney home of a man members of the Australian bitcoin community say might be the mastermind behind controversial cryptocurrency, just hours after reports that he may be its secretive creator surfaced in the United States.
However, Fairfax Media has been told the raid at the property of Craig Steven Wright relates to an "individual taxation matter" involving Mr Wright, rather than his apparent role in creating the encrypted currency. 
The Australian Federal Police attended Mr Wright's home in Gordon, on Sydney's north shore, on Wednesday afternoon to assist the Tax Office in carrying out a search.
In a report published on Wednesday morning, US tech publication Wired said it had uncovered enough evidence to suggest that bitcoin's mysterious founder, who operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, was actually 44-year-old Mr Wright.
Wired acknowledged its report was based on "unverified leaked documents" that it admitted "could be faked in whole or in part".
Fairfax Media attempted to contact Mr Wright for comment but received no response. The Australian Federal Police referred matters to the ATO. The ATO declined to comment.
Mr Wright is listed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission as a director of Hotwire and another company, Panopticrypt, which are both registered at a residential address on Sydney's north shore. He has been a shareholder and director in a range of other enterprises, the ASIC database shows.
He is also listed as chief executive on the website of a company called DeMorgan, which describes itself "a pre-IPO Australian listed company focused on alternative currency, next generation banking and reputational and educational products." Calls to this company went straight to voicemail.
Chris Guzowski, founder of ABA Technologies and regular on the Bitcoin circuit, said Wired had uncovered enough circumstantial evidence for Mr Wright to be a plausible candidate. "It certainly makes sense," he said. "He's definitely been in bitcoin from the very start and has accumulated a really big stash of Bitcoin. He's also been in this huge stoush with the ATO for a long time."
Andrew Sommer, a partner at Clayton Utz and who testified at last year's Senate Inquiry into digital currency, is reputedly Mr White's lawyer.
But Mr Sommer said he couldn't comment on any client when contacted by Fairfax.
The Wired story was not the first time a media outlet has claimed to reveal the true identity of bitcoin's founder. Last year, US magazine Newsweek said it had found the mysterious person behind the cryptocurrency. However the man it named, Dorien Nakamoto, denied Newsweek's claim, and subsequently sued the publication.
The Wired report cites archived blog posts from as far back as 2008, purportedly written by Mr Wright, which discuss aspects of the distributed ledger that is a key element of bitcoin, as well as leaked emails and a liquidation report by Australian corporate recovery firm McGrath Nicol involving one of Mr Wright's companies.
McGrath Nicol confirmed the veracity of the liquidation report, which states that the company, Hotwire Preemptive Intelligence, was backed by $30 million in capital that was "injected via bitcoins".
Wired acknowledged that the trail of evidence leading to Mr Wright could be part of an elaborate hoax.
Key points
Police in Sydney raided the home of a man reported as being the founder of bitcoin.
Fairfax Media was told the raid related to a tax matter.