Craig Wright Drops Norwegian Defamation Appeal Over Satoshi Nakamoto Claims

Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist claiming to be Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto, has dropped his appeal in a Norwegian defamation case against the well-known Bitcoiner Hodlonaut (a.k.a. Marcus Granath), according to a statement released on X Thursday.

Marcus Granath Celebrates As Norway Appeal Is Dropped

Granath first found himself in legal hot water with Wright when he took issue with a series of now-deleted March 2019 X posts referring to the so-called Bitcoin inventor as a “fraud,” “mentally ill,” and a “pathetic scammer.”

By that summer, the London-based Wright had filed a defamation lawsuit against Granath in the U.K. Around the same time, Granath filed a lawsuit in his native Norway alleging that his judgements against Wright were fully compatible with the law.

Just got off the phone with my Norwegian lawyer.

CRAIG WRIGHT DROPPED THE APPEAL IN NORWAY!

My win from 2022 is now final and enforceable.

This case started May 19th, 2019 and lasted until today.

I’m very happy!

Now I just need to get the UK case dismissed/won and I can…

— hodlonaut 80 IQ 10%er 🌮⚡🔑 🐝 (@hodlonaut) April 11, 2024

In October 2022, a Norwegian court ruled in Granath’s favor, in part claiming that Wright had insufficient evidence to verifiably prove he was Satoshi Nakamoto.

“Just got off the phone with my Norwegian lawyer,” Granath posted to his X account. “CRAIG WRIGHT DROPPED THE APPEAL IN NORWAY! My win from 2022 is now final and enforceable. This case started May 19th, 2019 and lasted until today. I’m very happy!”

Craig Wright Is Not Satoshi Nakamoto, London High Court Rules

News of Wright’s failed Norwegian appeal comes just two months after London’s High Court found the alleged Australian fraudster to have lied about being the inventor of Bitcoin in a case filed by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) challenging his claims.

Justice Mellor found that:
1) Dr Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper.
2) Dr Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto.
3) Dr Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin System.
4) Dr Wright is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software.
1/4

— COPA (@opencryptoorg) March 14, 2024

“For over eight years, Dr. Wright and his financial backers have lied about his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto and used that lie to bully and intimidate developers in the bitcoin community,” COPA posted to their X account shortly after the ruling. “That ends today with the court’s ruling that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto.”

In fact, a recent linguistic analysis of Satoshi Nakamoto’s writing shows that the enigmatic founding father of crypto may be a collective group, not just one individual.

Shortly after the ruling, UK Judge James Mellor froze the entirety of Wright’s assets after he attempted to transfer several of his London firm’s shares to a Singapore-based entity, potentially in a bid to evade financial penalties related to the case. 

Despite Granath’s latest victory, Wright’s original libel lawsuit against him remains open in the UK. It’s unclear when or if they will return to court for this case.