Bosnian court sides with Bitcoin miner in frozen bank account case

The second-largest Italian bank would have to pay $144 million in compensation to the mining farm, the judge rules.

Italy’s second-largest bank UniCredit and the Bitcoin (BTC) mining farm Bitminer Factory have faced each other in the Bosnian city Banja Luka court, which decided that the bank improperly closed the company’s account and must compensate €131 million (about $144 million) to the plaintiff. 

As reported in La Repubblica on March 27, the court of Banja Luka held that a Bosnian branch of UniCredit didn’t have legitimate reasons to freeze the operations of Bitminer Factory Gradiska LLC’s account. The Bitminer Factory estimated its losses at €131 million, asserting that the closure of its accounts had “hindered its initial coin offering (ICO) in relation to a startup project in the cryptocurrency mining sector with renewable energy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” The court accepted that number.

In its defense, UniCredit cited an “inability to do business with digital currency suppliers and exchange platforms.” However, according to the court’s decision, this claim didn’t find any confirmation in the bank’s written policies.

Related: Ukraine’s largest savings bank halts Bitcoin buys with hryvnia

UniCredit has already filed an appeal, dubbing the allegations as unfounded:

“It is not final, nor binding, nor enforceable. Ucbl’s eventual liability will only be determined upon the final outcome of all available procedural remedies and, in any event, not before the filing of a final and binding judgment by the court of appeal.”

The previous controversy in its relations to the digital assets has happened In January 2022, when UniCredit had to officially refute its own tweet, stating that the did not inhibit its customers from crypto investments or have any intention of closing their accounts on that matter.