- Kraken has hit back at claims by Craig Wright that it is selling the wrong coin under the ticker BTC
- Wright claims that his BSV fork is the real Bitcoin and that Kraken has been confusing customers by selling BTC as Bitcoin
- The exchange called some of the claims “embarrassing” for their lack of evidence
Kraken has hit back at claims from Craig Wright that it is fraudulently allowing Bitcoin to be traded under the ticker BTC by rubbishing his claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto and his version of Bitcoin’s history. Kraken chastised some of the allegations and their supporting evidence as “embarrassing” and suggested there was no way in which customers were confused as to which Bitcoin they were buying.
Wright Says Kraken is ‘Passing Off’ Bitcoin as BTC
Wright has launched lawsuits against Kraken and Coinbase on the premise that they are “passing off” Bitcoin as BTC when in fact Bitcoin is really his project, BSV, in July this year, and Kraken filed its reply last week. Wright claimed that, as Satoshi Nakamoto, he created Bitcoin and that later developers changed the code and forced him out of the project, realizing the true meaning behind Bitcoin, as outlined in the Bitcoin whitepaper, with his BSV project, which launched in 2018.
Wright claims that BSV is the true Bitcoin chain and that Bitcoin itself became the alt coin when it implemented SegWit in mid-2017 (which Wright once said would destroy all Bitcoin in existence). He claims that, as a result, Kraken (and Coinbase) have been selling the wrong Bitcoin – they should have been selling Bitcoin through BSV, not BTC.
Kraken Calls Evidence-free Claims “Embarrassing”
In its response, Kraken dismissed the notion that Wright is Satoshi, pointing to the plethora of fraudulent documents used as ‘evidence’, the numerous court cases where this evidence has been debunked, and instances where Wright has directly contradicted himself. This occurred again in this case, with Wright saying in a blog post in 2020 that Satoshi Nakamoto (i.e. him) never posted on bitcointalk.org, and yet in his filing, Wright says the exact opposite:
Kraken also called out the lack of evidence backing up Wright’s story, saying that, “The lack of particulars in support of the allegation at paragraph 54 PoC is embarrassing and the Claimants are required to properly plead their case on alleged damage.”
Kraken also points out that Wright should have objected to Bitcoin being passed off as BTC when the suggestion of SegWit was first mentioned, which dates as far back as 2015, or at the very latest in July 2017 when it was implemented. Of course, the reason Wright didn’t do this is because he wasn’t millions of dollars in debt to Calvin Ayre at that point.
Public Not Confused About Their Bitcoin
Kraken signs off its filing by saying that the cryptocurrency-buying public are not confused in the slightest about which Bitcoin they are buying, and that Wright is not owed anything by the exchange for his passing off claims.
The case will now go forward to stage one of a UK trial, a costs and case management conference, although is is thought that Kraken might apply to have the trial stayed until the outcome of the COPA case in 2024, which could see Wright banned from calling himself Satoshi Nakamoto and eviscerating any claims that he is, which would, in turn, invalidate the entire premise behind the Kraken and Coinbase suits.
