Craig Wright
Self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto Craig S. Wright could end up having to turn over half of his bitcoin holdings, as well as intellectual property, to the estate of David Kleiman. That was recommended by Judge Bruce Reinhart in regard to the Kleiman v. Wright case. While another judge will have to formally adopt this ruling, the odds have quickly skewed against Wright who may end up having to forfeit upwards of 500,000 BTC worth more than $5 billion at the time of writing.
Back in 2018, the brother of now-deceased David Kleiman filed a lawsuit against Craig Wright. Ira Kleiman alleged that Wright stole a sum of bitcoins that he had mined with his brother during the early years of the protocol. The estate that they collectively owned was upwards of 1 million BTC.
It now appears that the case is close to ending, as Judge Reinhart ruled that Wright has to turn over half of his bitcoin holdings to Kleiman’s estate. Wright won’t be entitled to a jury trial, and he won’t be able to oppose the order, even though he will be able to appeal.
However, the case is still not over. There are quite a few procedural hoops that will have to be jumped through first. Moreover, Judge Reinhart’s order will need to be adopted by District Judge Bet Bloom before it becomes final. In other words, we have yet to see whether Wright’s attorneys will object, which could potentially prolong the case.
Furthermore, Judge Reinhart didn’t make any finding on the matter of whether or not Wright was, as he claims, Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin.
Notably, the amount of Bitcoin that Wright will have to turn over is currently worth upwards of $5 billion. That’s roughly around 3.6% of the entire market capitalization of Bitcoin.
Naturally, the crypto community has started to doubt whether or not Ira Kleiman will dump that amount on the market in order to liquidate it for cash.
Commenting on the matter was Craig S. Wright himself. In an interview with Modern Consensus, Wright said that Ira Kleiman will have to pay a 40% estate tax on the receivable bitcoins.
There are quite a few regulatory hurdles to be considered and ironed out before it becomes clear whether Kleiman will actually take possession of the amount in question and dump anything on the market at all.