- nChain whistleblower Christen Ager-Hanssen has sued the blockchain company and key individuals in it for $98 million
- Ager-Hanssen was fired in 2023 after revealing what he says is the shadow ownership of the British firm
- The company is known as being the home of Satoshi Nakamoto faker Craig Wright for almost a decade
The former nChain CEO at the heart of a dramatic whistleblowing campaign in 2023 has sued the company and key individuals involved in its operations for £72 million ($98 million). Christen Ager-Hanssen has targeted nChain, a British blockchain company, alongside former employee and professional Satoshi Nakamoto faker Craig Wright and his principal backers for the last ten years: Stefan Matthews and Calvin Ayre. Ager-Hanssen was himself handed a 10-month prison sentence for contempt of court due to “deliberate” breaches of court orders related to theft of property from nChain following his departure in September 2023, but this lawsuit throws open the prospect for years’ worth of secrets to be revealed.
Ager-Hanssen’s Troubled Times
Ager-Hanssen’s history with nChain can be described as tumultuous at best. He had been in the job for less than a year when he uncovered what he believed was evidence of financial malpractice within the company and its majority owner, Calvin Ayre. The Norwegian compiled a report, The Fairway Brief, and handed it to Aye and other directors in late September 2023; within days, he had been fired, along with a clutch of other board members who Ager-Hanssen had informed and who put their names to a letter of dissatisfaction with the company’s alleged shady dealings.
Part of the deception was the fraudulent positioning of then-nChain employee Craig Wright as Satoshi Nakamoto in his ultimately doomed fight against the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance. Following staunch support since his appointment, Ager-Hanseen discovered in September 2023 that Wright was a fraud, firing Wright and informing his superiors of the deception. Ager-Hanssen expected them to drop their support for Wright, but instead, they got rid of the CEO and the board members who dared question them, throwing their lot in with Wright, which proved a disaster: Wright lost spectacularly and ended up fleeing to Asia, where he earned himself a suspended sentence for contempt of court and may face criminal perjury charges.
Observers Await Details
Having been sued by nChain in October 2023 and ended up with a 10-month sentence over the retention of staff computing equipment, Ager-Hanssen is now turning the tables, suing nChain on Friday and leaking snippets on X:
Calvin Ayre, Majority owner and Shadow Director of nChain, as well as the undisclosed beneficial owner of the litigation vehicles Tulip Trading Ltd and Wright International Investments Ltd, both registered in Seychelles to obscure directorship and beneficial ownership. Ayre… pic.twitter.com/vCvyBY0njL
— Christen Ager-Hanssen (@agerhanssen) July 6, 2025
The details of the lawsuit remaining under wraps, but the suit has been filed as a breach of fiduciary duty and there are several defendants, with nChain, Ayre, Wright and another long-time associate, Stefan Matthews, also in the firing line (Matthews, too, has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service for possible perjury charges, as Ager-Hanssen warned him).
Those with an understanding of the story (including the author, who is close to publishing a book on the ten-year Craig Wright fraud called Faketoshi: Fraud, Lies and the Battle for Bitcoin’s Soul) have been keen to know the depth of Ayre’s knowledge of Wright’s scam. They will be hoping that the truth finally comes out as the lawsuit progresses through the courts.
