Craig Wright, Bitcoin founder, wins $54bn case, now world’s 26th richest man
The creator of Bitcoin (BTC), Craig Wright, aged 51, has won a court case which had confirmed his status as the owner of the cryptocurrency making him the 26th richest person in the world.
The family of his late business partner, Dave Kleiman, had filed a suit against him in a Miami, U.S court over the ownership and possession of 1.1 million bitcoins, which is worth $54 billion.
The late Kleiman’s family had prayed the court to declare that the deceased computer security expert deserved half of the bitcoin assets, which they claimed he and Wright jointly created in 2009.
Wright had come out in 2016 to claim that he was the creator of the virtual currency, Bitcoin, which he first mined in 2009, but used Satoshi Nakamoto as his pseudonym, a claim that was disputed by Kleiman’s family.
The Miami court’s decision has however affirmed Wright’s claim to being the creator of the virtual currency and owner of the 1.1 million BTC.
The court, however, ruled that Wright pays $100 million to Kleiman’s family and estate for intellectual property infringement.
This, by implication, implies that Wright’s networth is over $54 billion, making him now the 26th richest man on earth based on the Forbes billionaires rankings.
Reacting to the judgement, Wright said he had been vindicated on the claims of being the founder of bitcoin.
“The jury has obviously found that I am because there would have been no award otherwise.
“This has been a remarkable good outcome and I feel completely vindicated,” he said.
Periscope International reports that Craig Steven Wright is an Australian computer scientist and businessman.
Initial controversy had trailed his public claim to be the brain behind the creation of bitcoin, and the identity behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, for which he has now won and has become famous.
