Crypto social media revels after CSW loses court case

The crypto social media is chock-full of schadenfreude after a judge ordered Craig Wraith, Bitcoin SV advocate and self-proclaimed creator of Bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto, to turn over 50% of the Bitcoin that he allegedly mined between 2009 and 2011 with his now-deceased business associate Dave Kleiman - as well as half of his currently-held IP - to the Kleiman estate.

The ongoing trial started back in 2018, when Kleiman’s brother sued for half the bitcoin holdings in the so-called Tulip Trust, alleging that Wright and Kleiman were partners, which CSW denies.

During the trial, CSW repeated his previous claim that he’s unable to access the funds in the Tulip Trust, as the private key was sharded into 15 pieces of which he says he only has 7. Once he has the eight piece - which he claims he’ll receive via a bonded courier on January 21st, 2020 - only then will be able to access the Tulip Trust, according to Wright.

It is important to note that the recent ruling is fairly theoretical - it doesn’t actually assume that CSW has any Bitcoin to his name, nor did the judge make any material determinations on whether Wright was in fact Satoshi:

“I am not required to decide, and I do not decide, whether Dr. Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto,” Reinhart said. “I also am not required to decide, and I do not decide, the amount of Bitcoin, if any, that Dr. Wright controls today.”

The judge also said CSW made inconsistent statements throughout the trial and openly questioned Wright’s credibility:

“During his testimony, Dr. Wright’s demeanor did not impress me as someone who was telling the truth. When it was favorable to him, Dr. Wright appeared to have an excellent memory and a scrupulous attention to detail. Otherwise, Dr. Wright was belligerent and evasive,” Reinhart said.

Following the ruling, Wright sat down for an interview in which he suggested that he will comply with the judge’s order. He claimed he has no intentions to flood the market with his own self-proclaimed $5 billion in remaining BTC, but that him sending 500,000 BTC to the Kleiman estate could still tank the market.

“Everyone might want to start praying, because I complied with courts and that might get scary really, really quickly.”, said Wright, “The courts ruled that Ira inherited the $5 billion. Now he has to pay estate tax on that if he wants it.”

(note: using 2013 Bitcoin prices would make the stash fall below the annual taxable inheritance limit)

The news made waves in the crypto community, with many believing both the ruling and CSW’s threats to be meaningless as Wright never owned those coins in the first place:

A diligent few also explained the judge made no determinations whether Wright is in possesion of any Bitcoin whatsoever:

Based on the prevailing crowd sentiment, it’s little surprise that the price of Bitcoin didn’t react in any meaningful way to the latest installment of the #Faketoshi saga. The top coin continued to trade sideways in the ~$10200 range throughout the past few days.

Meanwhile, although Wright’s BSV experienced a short-term downtrend to start the week, it has bounced back to its pre-ruling levels over the past 12 hours, and is currently cruising at around $133 a pop.