Biography & Early Wealth Journey

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Wright ended up dropping his lawsuit against Ferrier back in March of 2014, but according to the suit, Wright had paid out the entire agreed upon sum to Ferrier before the deals went bad – a figure which comes to 380,203 Bitcoins. At the time, that was equivalent to almost five percent of all the Bitcoins in existence, which is one huge reason why Wright is supposed by many, to be the inventor of the currency. But Wright has, up to this point, declined to accept credit for Bitcoin or to claim the pseudonymous identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. And since the information evidently didn't come up in court during the lawsuit and isn't part of public court documents, if he is indeed Nakamoto, he won't have to admit it unless he wants to – a situation that may have been the reason for his dropping his lawsuit if some sort of satisfactory settlement wasn't made outside of the courts.

Even if Wright is completely out for the money Ferrier allegedly absconded with, his financial future is secure, if he is the inventor of Bitcoin, as Satoshi Nakamoto is estimated to have a net worth of around $400 million. He also claimed to have "at least" $70 million worth of Bitcoin to pay for the proposed deal at the time of his meeting with Ferrier. So depending on your opinion of what the actual value of Bitcoin is, he's either in good, or in very bad financial shape.