Solana co-founder Stephen Akridge and his ex-wife Elisa Rossi are in court over a financial dispute. Elisa Rossi accuses Stephen Akridge of illegally appropriating and staking her Solana cryptocurrency $SOL from her crypto wallet, but he did not give her a single cent of the nearly millions of dollars in staking rewards.
Elisa Rossi is Italian, currently living in Rome, and has been married to Akridge for nearly 10 years. According to a lawsuit filed in California court on Tuesday, Solana's co-founder withheld millions of dollars in reward tokens from his ex-wife. Elisa Rossi is suing Stephen Akridge to recover the proceeds.
The couple accumulated significant wealth and assets during their marriage, with community property largely due to Akridge's role as a founder at Solana Labs. State court records show that in 2023, the couple filed for divorce in court. According to California law, the property and debts of spouses are jointly owned, and couples usually need to hire lawyers to protect their financial interests during a divorce.
Elisa Rossi filed for divorce, claiming her right to receive token rewards. Rossi stated that her ex-husband took advantage of her lack of understanding of cryptocurrency and pocketed all the staking rewards from her Solana.
Who is Stephen Arkidge?
Stephen Akridge is a software engineer. Before the news broke, Stephen Akridge was not as prominent as the other two founders of Solana Labs, Anatoly Yakavenko or Raj Gokal. He left Solana Labs in January of this year, taking 45 employees with him to co-found Anza, but he remains an important stakeholder in Solana. In October of this year, he was appointed CEO of the cybersecurity company Cyber Grant.
Akridge's ex-wife Rossi claims that after discovering her Solana was staked, she repeatedly contacted Akridge to request its return, but her ex-husband just laughed and said: 'Good luck, you got my staking rewards.'
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Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong got married this year. His wife, Angela Meng, is a banking investment and financial expert and comes from a journalism background, having reported on politics and finance for the South China Morning Post and Beijing Reuters. She has also walked in fashion shows due to her good looks, making her an amateur model.
The exchange founder sees the other half and lover as a 'Wife With Benefits' and 'Partner In Crime'. Can the other half's crypto wallet be used to hide private money? It seems impossible; due to the unique public and transparent ledger of blockchain, where the money is moved can be clearly seen on-chain, and if things go south and they need to split, evidence can be found immediately.
If the other half does not understand what cryptocurrency is and uses the partner's wallet for financial transactions, it is equivalent to treating the partner as a money mule, which constitutes a crime.
This article is reprinted with permission from: (Chain News)
'The Crypto Family Saga! Solana Co-founder Divorce Asset Dispute, Dramatic Soap Opera Event Summary' was first published in 'Crypto City.'
