The Italy-based banking institution will need to pay a hefty fine for wrongfully closing an account owned by a Bitcoin mining company.
According to a post by a local news outlet la Repubblica, the lawsuit was brought in by the Bitminer Factory two years ago, and has only now received reimbursement for the accounts closed by UniCredit.
The dispute started when UniCredit’s bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina closed down Bitminer Factory’s bank accounts that belonged to a subsidiary of the company within the region.
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According to the lawsuit by Bitminer Factory, the closing of its bank accounts was a huge blow to the company, ruining its renewable energy mining project in the country. The evidence proved to be sufficient for the court, and Unicredit was ordered to pay €131 million (approximately $144M) in order to cover the losses.
While UniCredit argued that they weren’t doing business with cryptocurrencies, because of which they’ve closed the accounts, there weren’t any documents that enforced such a rule. Therefore, the court ruled in favor of the Bitminer Factory company.
Bitcoin mining activities have been booming last year, generating over $15B just in 2021. One BTC mining farm in Canada called Hut-8 has reported to have earned almost $174 million in revenue, mining 2.8K Bitcoin in the process
