Bitcoin trial: Defendant wins, keeps Bitcoins worth $50B

By KEN SWEET
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Craig Wright, a computer scientist who claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin, prevailed in a highly publicized trial Monday that will allow him to hold onto a hoard of Bitcoins worth tens of billions of dollars. A Florida jury found that Wright did not owe half of 1.1 million Bitcoins to the family of David Kleiman, Wright’s one-time business partner. At the center of the highly technical trial were 1.1 million Bitcoins, worth approximately $50 billion based on Monday’s prices. These were among the first Bitcoins to be created through mining and could only be owned by a person or entity involved with the digital currency from its beginning.