There are several high-profile court cases awaiting our attention in 2024, including the fallout from the 2022 crypto contagion. And, of course, there’s Craig Wright.
But what are the cases to watch in 2024? Get your gavel ready and let’s find out.
SEC vs Ripple (Appeal)
Ripple won its battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the agency’s claim that XRP is a security this year, but the SEC appealed the ruling. Many wise heads have opined that the verdict was based on a shaky legal premise and that an appeal victory is likely.
An SEC victory would be a huge blow to the crypto space as a whole and would give the authority huge scope to put further pressure on other projects. On the other hand, were the verdict to be upheld it would be a huge boost for crypto going forward.
Do Kwon vs Many People
The man responsible for building the $60 billion Terra/LUNA ecosystem on an algorithm that couldn’t cope with market volatility will face justice from both the Singapore authorities as well as a glut of pissed off investors next year, both institutional and retail. As well as this, Kwon also faces a battle against the SEC over whether a prior project, Mirror Protocol, was a security.
Not all of these cases will be decided next year, but we will get a very clear idea of how Kwon intends to fight them (or not), as well as what his chances are – if they can get him out of Montenegro.
COPA vs. Craig Wright
Craig Wright spent the majority of 2023 railing against everyone before getting fired from his job in September after his awful evidence for being Satoshi was busted as being fraudulent. What was this new batch of fraudulent evidence for?
The Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) sued Wright in 2021 after he tried to force its founder, Square (now Block), to take down the Bitcoin whitepaper, claiming he wrote it. Wright wasn’t prepared for what he received in return, but responded this year by handing over a trove of Satoshi evidence that was so bad that it led to him being reported to his company by the then CEO and fired (the CEO was fired, too).
The COPA vs. Craig Wright trial will run between January and March 2024, and the outcome will have a huge impact on the Bitcoin space: if Wright wins he may have the opportunity to replace Bitcoin with his knockoff, BSV, on all exchanges, while if he loses he cannot call himself Satoshi Nakamoto, at least in the UK.
So yeah, gonna be a biggie.
