Craig Wright’s Defamation Suit Will Proceed...Plus Calls for Hearing on TerraUSD's Collapse

Written by:
Aaron Goldstein
Published on:
May/18/2022

The English High Court has rejected Magnus ‘Hodlonaut’ Granath’s attempt to have Dr. Craig Wright’s defamation case thrown out.

Wright decided to sue Twitter user Hodlonaut after he allegedly led a “targeted campaign” against the Bitcoin co-creator. Granath, a Norwegian citizen, regularoly tweets on various technology issues.

From Jordan Atkins of CoinGeek:

Granath had filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the case should be thrown out on the basis that Dr. Wright had no reasonable prospect of succeeding at trial. Specifically, he said that Dr. Wright had presented no evidence that Granath’s alleged defamatory tweet had seriously harmed the reputation of Dr. Wright, primarily insisting to the court that Granath’s then-limited following on the social media platform meant that his tweets gained few impressions and even less engagements.

Judge Lewis issued the ruling on Tuesday.  He appeared to be sympathetic to complaints from plaintiff’s counsel that Granath and his lawyers had not been forthcoming with regard to the Twitter analytics of the tweet in question.

“The data that has been provided does, however, paint a picture that is somewhat different from the impression given by the defendant,” said Judge Lewis in the judgment.

Wright is a proponent of the BSV Blockchain.  He currently serves as NChain's Chief Scientist.

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A politician from South Korea’s ruling party wants the country’s parliament to hold a hearing on TerraUSD’s collapse that has led to numerous reported suicide attempts.

Yun Chang-Hyun, a representative from South Korea's ruling People Power Party, has requested Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon and Korean crypto exchange officials to attend the hearing.

The token’s crash last week sent cryptocurrencies tumbling, a slide which resumed on Monday, as Bitcoin gave up the gains it had eked out over the weekend.

The slide began May 9 after UST, another name for the TerraUSD stablecoin, began to break its peg to the US dollar.  The price of UST eventually plunged to 10 cents, while Luna fell to "virtually zero", down from an all-time high of $119.51.  This resulted in almost $45 billion of market capitalisation being wiped out over the course of a one-week period.

"We should bring related exchange officials, including CEO Do Kwon of Terra, which has become a recent problem, to the National Assembly to hold a hearing on the cause of the situation and measures to protect investors," Chang-Hyun reportedly said Wednesday at a plenary meeting of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee. 

Chang-Hyun also wants crypto exchanges to account for their behavior during the crash.

"Coinone, Korbit and Gopax stopped trading on May 10, Bithumb on May 11, but Upbit did not stop trading until May 13," he said. "Upbit, which was the last to stop trading even after seeing the crash, is the No. 1 company with an 80% share. In just those three days, it earned close to 10 billion won [$7.8 million] in commission income," Chang-hyun added.

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com

Business/Financial News

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