Calvin Ayre, a prominent financier of BSV, a fork of bitcoin (BTC) that has lost 99% of its BTC value, is the subject of a new investigation by Tagesschau, a TV program of Germany’s largest public broadcasting network.
Its reporters suspect hundreds of millions of euros that passed through Wirecard, a fraudulent payments company in Germany, originated with Ayre.
Ayre is a Canadian gambling magnate who made a fortune operating online casinos and buying BTC early. He eventually ended up supporting another Bitcoin developer’s delusional claims about being Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s creator.
For years, Ayre and his intellectual property companies like nChain financially backed Craig Wright, encouraging his legal escapades that terminated in a failed lawsuit against the Crypto Open Patent Alliance, a pro-Bitcoin alliance including Coinbase, Kraken, and Block.
In March 2024, the UK High Court of Justice, the world’s highest copyright court, ruled that Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto. The sentence is final and binding worldwide, with no hope of further appeal.
Ayre promptly took a break from social media after the embarrassing ruling.
BSV’s gambling tycoon Calvin Ayre tied to Wirecard collapse
Ayre’s gambling fortune is public knowledge, with many reports estimating that this, combined with his BTC purchases, made him a billionaire.
Ayre allegedly funded nChain with $570 million and admitted as early as 2007 to running “the largest private employer” in Antigua, a tax haven.
US Immigration and Customs once listed him on its “Most Wanted List” before he paid $500,000 and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge related to the transmission of gambling information.
According to Tagesschau’s investigation, Wright once worked at a London subsidiary of Ayre’s Tyche Consulting which ended up holding €8 million ($9.26 million) for Wirecard.
Read more: Former nChain CEO funded UK Tories without permission, report
Reporters looked through 500,000 transactions involving Wirecard’s purported ‘third-party acquirers’ that were supposed to hold funds for Asian business dealings. Ayre controlled many of these entities, according to Tagesschau.
One of Tagesschau’s sources, nChain ex-CEO Christen Ager-Hanssen, claims Ayre “needed Wirecard just as Wirecard needed him” as a hub for his gambling proceeds.
How much did Markus Braun know about Calvin Ayre?
If true, the findings directly undercut former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun’s long‑standing defense that billions of euros booked on third‑party accounts were genuine Wirecard revenues that a rogue group led by Wirecard’s ex‑COO Jan Marsalek later stole.
If German courts ultimately accept that substantial sums of money belonged to Ayre’s network rather than Wirecard itself — especially if Braun knew about Ayre’s entities improperly holding Wirecard funds — Braun’s narrative that he was a victim of others’ embezzlement could collapse.
The investigation also reveals a substantial new link between Wirecard’s record-setting fraud and the crypto industry.
Ayre has spent years promoting BSV and investing heavily in blockchain ventures through nChain and his Ayre Group, presenting himself as a legitimate leader in enterprise blockchain solutions.
This investigation presents an entirely different story.
Tagesschau’s report is new, so German prosecutors have not yet publicly detailed how they will incorporate the new material into ongoing legal proceedings against Wirecard.
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