The judge ordered the second-largest Italian bank to pay the mining farm $144 million in damages.
UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest bank, and Bitminer Factory, a Bitcoin (BTC) mining farm, squared off in the Bosnian city of Banja Luka, where a court ruled that the bank wrongfully cancelled the company’s account and must compensate the plaintiff €131 million (about $144 million).
As reported in La Repubblica on March 27, a Banja Luka court ruled on March 27 that a Bosnian branch of UniCredit lacked sufficient grounds to freeze Bitminer Factory Gradiska LLC’s account. The Bitminer Factory assessed its losses at €131 million, claiming that the shutdown of its accounts “harmed its initial coin offering (ICO) in connection with a startup initiative in the cryptocurrency mining sector using renewable energy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” That figure was approved by the court.
UniCredit defended itself by stating that it was unable to conduct business with digital currency suppliers and exchange platforms. However, the court determined that this assertion was unsupported by the bank’s written policies.
UniCredit has previously appealed, claiming that the charges are unfounded:
“It is not conclusive, nor is it binding, nor is it enforceable. Ucbl’s ultimate liability will be decided only after all available procedural remedies have been exhausted and, in any case, not before the court of appeals files a final and binding judgement.”
The previous incident over UniCredit’s relationship with digital assets occurred in January 2022, when the bank was forced to publicly repudiate its own tweet, declaring that it did not prohibit customers from investing in crypto and had no plan of doing so.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
