Forbes excludes Satoshi Nakamoto from its billionaire list primarily because they cannot verify whether Nakamoto is a living individual or a group, and there’s no identifiable legal entity tied to the pseudonym.

Despite Nakamoto’s estimated 1.1 million BTC, worth over $121 billion at $110,302 per Bitcoin, Forbes’ methodology requires a confirmed identity, passport, or paper trail, which Nakamoto lacks—unlike other billionaires who use offshore trusts or shell companies but are still traceable to a legal entity.

The transparency of Nakamoto’s blockchain-based wealth, visible to anyone with a blockchain explorer, contrasts with Forbes’ reliance on traditional markers of wealth like stocks or corporate filings. Critics argue this approach is outdated in the digital era, where pseudonymous wealth is verifiable on-chain, and suggest Forbes risks irrelevance by not adapting to decentralized finance.

Some propose Forbes could include pseudonymous wallets in supplemental lists to reflect this shift. Forbes’ exclusion of Satoshi Nakamoto, despite their estimated 1.1 million BTC (worth over $121 billion at $110,302 per BTC), signals a reluctance to fully recognize cryptocurrency as a legitimate form of wealth.

This could undermine the perceived validity of digital assets in traditional finance, potentially slowing mainstream adoption. Forbes’ methodology favors conventional assets (stocks, real estate, corporate holdings) tied to verifiable identities or legal entities.

This biases their rankings against pseudonymous or decentralized wealth, which is transparent on blockchains but lacks traditional markers like passports or corporate filings. It risks alienating a growing segment of wealth holders in the crypto space.

The exclusion highlights a disconnect between old-school financial reporting and the decentralized finance (DeFi) era. As crypto wealth grows—potentially surpassing $10 trillion by 2030, per some estimates—Forbes may face pressure to adapt its criteria or risk becoming irrelevant to a new generation of investors and wealth creators.

Nakamoto’s anonymity embodies Bitcoin’s ethos of decentralization and privacy. Forbes’ insistence on identity verification clashes with this philosophy, potentially alienating crypto communities who view pseudonymity as a feature, not a flaw. This could fuel alternative wealth rankings by crypto-native platforms.

By not acknowledging pseudonymous wealth, Forbes misses a chance to lead in redefining billionaire lists for the digital age. Including figures like Nakamoto in supplemental lists (e.g., “Pseudonymous Wealth Holders”) could enhance their relevance and appeal to crypto audiences.

How Forbes Verifies Crypto Wealth

Forbes’ verification process for crypto wealth aligns with its traditional methodology but struggles to accommodate the unique nature of cryptocurrencies: Forbes requires a verifiable identity tied to a legal entity (individual, trust, or company).

For crypto billionaires like Changpeng Zhao or Brian Armstrong, Forbes links their wealth to known holdings in exchanges (e.g., Binance, Coinbase) or documented wallets, corroborated by public records, corporate filings, or interviews. Pseudonymous figures like Nakamoto, lacking a confirmed identity, are excluded.

For identified individuals, Forbes may use publicly disclosed wallet addresses or exchange data to estimate holdings, cross-referencing with blockchain explorers. They apply current market prices (e.g., $110,302 per BTC as of now) to estimate the value of verified crypto holdings.

Forbes often applies discounts to crypto wealth due to volatility and liquidity constraints, unlike stocks or real estate, which can lower reported net worth. Forbes relies on exchanges, blockchain analytics firms (e.g., Chainalysis), or industry insiders to confirm holdings. For example, they might verify a billionaire’s stake in a crypto exchange through equity disclosures or public statements, but pseudonymous wallets lack such corroboration.

Nakamoto’s 1.1 million BTC is traceable on the blockchain, with early mining wallets widely attributed to them. However, Forbes cannot confirm if these belong to a single living person, a group, or if the keys are still accessible. This uncertainty, combined with their identity requirement, leads to exclusion.

Forbes has included crypto billionaires like the Winklevoss twins, who hold significant Bitcoin, because their identities and holdings are verifiable through legal entities and public disclosures. Yet, Nakamoto’s transparent but pseudonymous wealth doesn’t meet Forbes’ threshold, exposing a gap in their methodology for DeFi-era assets.

Forbes’ approach reflects caution but also rigidity. Blockchain transparency allows anyone to verify Nakamoto’s holdings, unlike opaque offshore trusts used by traditional billionaires. Posts on X suggest growing frustration with Forbes’ outdated criteria, with some calling for crypto-native wealth lists that prioritize on-chain data over identity.

As crypto wealth grows, Forbes may need to evolve or cede influence to platforms that embrace decentralized verification methods.

Scale AI, the fast-rising company that helps tech firms prepare data to train their artificial intelligence models, has launched a legal battle against one of its former sales employees and competitor Mercor.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges that the employee, Eugene Ling — who recently joined Mercor — “stole more than 100 confidential documents concerning Scale’s customer strategies and other proprietary information,” according to a copy of the suit reviewed by TechCrunch.

The case centers on claims of trade secret misappropriation against Mercor and breach of contract against Ling. Scale contends that Ling was actively pitching Mercor to one of Scale’s largest customers, referred to in the filing only as “Customer A,” before formally leaving his position at Scale.

Mercor co-founder Surya Midha pushed back, insisting the company had no use for Scale’s confidential material. In an emailed statement to TechCrunch, he acknowledged Ling may have been in possession of some documents but said they were never accessed.

“While Mercor has hired many people who departed Scale, we have no interest in any of Scale’s trade secrets and in fact are intentionally running our business in a different way. Eugene informed us that he had old documents in a personal Google Drive, which we have never accessed and are now investigating,” Midha said.

Midha added that Mercor had contacted Scale six days earlier to propose a resolution: “We reached out to Scale six days ago offering to have Eugene destroy the files or reach a different resolution, and we are now awaiting their response.”

Still, Scale claims the materials Ling allegedly held could directly enable Mercor to serve Customer A and other top-tier clients. The company asked Mercor to provide a complete list of files in Ling’s drive and to bar him from working with Customer A. According to the filing, Mercor refused.

The complaint notes that if Mercor were to secure Customer A, the contract would be worth “millions of dollars.” Though the customer’s identity is not revealed, the implication underscores how valuable Scale considers the relationship.

The case comes against the backdrop of a fierce race in the LLM training industry, where talent poaching has become the norm. Even with Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in June for a 49% stake in Scale — which included hiring away its founder — Mercor has been gaining ground. TechCrunch has previously reported that Meta’s core AI unit, TBD Labs, continues to use Mercor and other providers despite its multibillion-dollar bet on Scale.

Mercor’s strategy is distinctive: it hires content specialists, often PhDs, to label and structure data in their areas of expertise. This approach has helped the smaller company carve out a reputation for quality in a field dominated by players with massive funding.

Scale, meanwhile, has endured some turbulence. After Meta’s investment, several of Scale’s largest customers — themselves rivals to Meta in AI — reportedly severed ties, concerned about potential conflicts of interest. That exodus has heightened the pressure on Scale to protect existing contracts and prevent rivals like Mercor from siphoning off business.

Analysts believe this lawsuit illustrates a trend likely to accelerate: as AI companies battle for scarce talent, employee poaching will increasingly raise risks of trade secret theft and confidential document leaks.

In Silicon Valley and beyond, companies are aggressively hiring engineers, researchers, and specialists from one another. That churn makes it difficult to draw clear boundaries between what knowledge workers carry in their heads versus what they might take in files or emails — a gray area that often leads to courtroom disputes.

While intellectual property battles are not new in tech, the stakes in AI are particularly high. The data pipelines and client relationships underpinning LLM training can be worth millions per contract, and losing them could tilt the balance in an industry still in its formative years.

Ultimately, the Scale–Mercor case is not just about one ex-employee’s Google Drive. Many believe it underscores how fragile competitive advantages are in the AI industry, where a single leak of confidential strategies can shift the balance of power despite billions of dollars in investment.

Standard Bank has revised its medium-term outlook on the Nigerian naira, projecting a 3.1% depreciation against the US dollar in 2025 but at a stronger level than it had previously forecast.

In its latest projection, the bank now expects the naira to close 2025 at N1,585.5/$1, compared with its earlier forecast of N1,697.5/$1. The revision, it explained, follows fresh evidence from Nigeria’s foreign exchange market and broader macroeconomic trends that point to a more stable trajectory for the currency.

“Based on some new evidence and how activities have panned out in the past month, we now amend our medium-term views on the USD/NGN pair. Specifically, we now expect the NGN to depreciate by a modest 3.1% against the USD in 2025, likely ending this year at N1,585.5 (previous forecast: N1,697.5) and settling at N1,692.6 by December 2026, and with a higher possibility of the currency ranging stronger, rather than lower, over the forecast horizon,” the bank stated.

Looking beyond 2025, Standard Bank flagged Nigeria’s approaching political cycle as a key risk factor. It noted that electioneering activities ahead of the 2027 general elections could put pressure on the currency, as both campaign spending and dollar demand typically surge during such periods.

“Electioneering activities are key factors stakeholders should consider as a likely driver of the USD/NGN pair in 2026 and 2027. Primary election activities are expected to begin in Q1 2026, with campaigns for the 2027 general election expected to be in full swing from Q3 2026. These activities are likely to lead to an increase in dollar demand, which, in addition to increased fiscal spending, should support an increase in money supply,” the report stated.

Even so, the bank expressed confidence that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s stronger FX reserve position should provide the apex bank with room to mitigate USD/NGN upside pressures.

The bank also highlighted how the start of operations at the Dangote Refinery has altered Nigeria’s oil trade balance. It noted that the decline in crude oil exports since Q2 2024 was largely due to higher domestic crude sales to the Lagos-based refinery.

“Indeed, after outstripping gas sales, crude oil exports declined to a quarterly average of $8.62bn in Q2 2024–Q4 2024, down from $10.99bn in Q1 2024, when the Dangote Refinery started operations,” the bank reported.

At the same time, the refinery’s local refining capacity has helped Nigeria reduce its dependence on imported petroleum products.

“The reduction in petroleum imports due to Dangote Refinery-induced local refining ensured that oil imports declined for a third consecutive quarter, to a 17-quarter low of $2.68bn,” the report added.

However, that relief was offset by a sharp rise in imports of other goods. Non-oil imports surged 24.1% quarter-on-quarter in Q4 2024, accounting for more than 73% of total imports. This pushed Nigeria’s overall imports up by 9.3% in the period, to $10.05bn.

The projection comes against the backdrop of President Bola Tinubu’s 2025 budget speech in December 2024, where he forecast inflation falling from 34.6% to 15% and the exchange rate strengthening from N1,700/$1 to N1,500/$1.

Those assumptions were widely doubted by analysts at the time. With Standard Bank now forecasting N1,585.5/$1 for 2025, the bank’s outlook appears closer to Tinubu’s official target — though still signaling a weaker naira.

How It Compares With the IMF, World Bank

In its 2025 Article IV review, the IMF didn’t publish a specific USD/NGN end-year target, but it did say the naira has shown signs of stabilizing as tighter policy and FX-market reforms took hold, while urging continued fiscal/monetary coordination, a market-clearing FX regime, and reserve rebuilding. In tone, that’s consistent with Standard Bank’s “modest depreciation with stronger-bias risks” — but the IMF frames it as policy-dependent stabilization rather than a level call.

The World Bank’s 2025 Nigeria Economic Update similarly avoids hard exchange-rate targets, but noted reserve buffers and the authorities’ reform push, while flagging inflation, FX backlogs, and external shocks as ongoing risks to macro stability. The read-through: a constructive but conditional stabilization view, broadly compatible with Standard Bank’s softer depreciation path.

Thus, some economists believe the Standard Bank’s outlook underlines how Nigeria’s economy sits at a crossroads. While the Dangote Refinery is easing the country’s import bill, political risks, high non-oil imports, and inflationary pressures continue to threaten exchange rate stability.

For businesses and investors, the bank’s forecast suggests some relief compared to earlier fears of a much sharper depreciation.