Court Freezes Craig Wright’s Assets Worth $7.6 Million

British judge James Mellor has sanctioned the freezing of Craig Wright’s assets amounting to £6 million (approximately $7.58 million). This was reported by The Block, citing court documents.

The decision aims to prevent Wright from evading court costs after he transferred some of his assets out of the UK. This move followed the court’s refusal to recognize him as Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

“Naturally, this raised serious concerns for the COPA that Dr. Wright was taking measures to avoid losses in court,” wrote Judge Mellor.

The COPA case against Wright began in 2021. The organization filed a lawsuit against the businessman to prevent him from litigating against developers and other members of the crypto community, as well as claiming intellectual property rights over Bitcoin technology.

Besides refusing to acknowledge Wright as Bitcoin’s creator, in March 2024, Judge Mellor also suspended two other cases involving the “pseudo-Satoshi,” including proceedings against Coinbase and Jack Dorsey’s Block.

COPA’s legal costs amounted to $8.5 million. The judge added that he has yet to hear detailed arguments on the expenses, but the winning party is “very likely” to receive compensation.

In May 2022, Wright accused several crypto exchanges of trading “fake” Bitcoin. According to him, the only digital asset “that remains true to the original protocol” is Bitcoin SV.

In April 2020, he withdrew a defamation lawsuit against Blockstream CEO Adam Back and covered his costs. The self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto made a similar decision in the case against Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

In July 2023, the court dismissed Craig Wright’s appeal in a defamation case against podcaster Peter McCormack.