Solana Pioneer Sued by Ex-Wife for Millions in Crypto Returns

(Bloomberg) — A co-founder of Solana, one of the biggest blockchain platforms in the world, is locked in a legal battle with his former wife over the gains from a cache of lucrative SOL tokens.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Stephen Akridge was accused by his ex-wife, Elisa Rossi, in a lawsuit of stealing “millions of dollars” in income yielded from her digital wallet holdings of Solana, the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market value.

Akridge “took advantage of the significant disparity in expertise in cryptocurrencies and blockchain that he possessed” and surreptitiously reaped Rossi’s so-called staking rewards, according to a complaint she filed this week in San Francisco Superior Court. Staking refers to the practice of pledging crypto assets to validate blockchain transactions and earning more tokens.

Solana has recently been one of the hottest digital assets. It was once closely associated with now-disgraced entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried and his trading firm Alameda Research, and saw its prices fall to below $10 after the collapse of FTX exchange. But Solana has since reemerged as one of the top performers among cryptocurrencies.

The value of the tokens at issue is blacked out in the suit, though Rossi referred to “significant sums” in a request to the court to keep portions of the complaint confidential.

Solana Labs, the developer of the blockchain platform, and attorneys for Akridge and Rossi didn’t respond to requests for comment. Akridge didn’t respond to a request for comment sent to Cyber Grant Inc., a California-based cybersecurity company that announced his appointment as chief executive officer in October.

Akridge, who came from Qualcomm Inc. according to Rossi’s complaint, served as Solana’s principal engineer and worked alongside other co-founders of the platform, Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal.

The dispute began after Akridge and Rossi filed for a divorce in February 2023 after 10 years of marriage, according to the complaint. In the lawsuit, Rossi accused Akridge of stealing her staking rewards, and is seeking damages for claims including breach of contract, unjust enrichment and fraud.

She says that from early March to mid-May the accounts “were being operated and controlled by Mr. Akridge who was receiving 100% of the commission on the SOL tokens allocated to Ms. Rossi.”

The case is Rossi v. Akridge, CGC-24-620900, California Superior Court, San Francisco County.

–With assistance from Muyao Shen.