Italy’s second-largest bank UniCredit and Bitcoin (BTC) mining farm Bitminer Factory faced each other in a court in the Bosnian city of Banja Luka, which ruled that the bank had wrongfully closed the company’s account and should pay 131 million euros (about 144 million US dollars) . claimant.
As La Repubblica reported on March 27, the Banja Luka court ruled that the Bosnian branch of UniCredit did not have legal grounds to freeze operations on the Bitminer Factory Gradiska LLC account. Bitminer Factory estimated its losses at 131 million euros, alleging that the closure of its accounts “difficulty initial coin offering (ICO) in relation to a start-up project in the renewable energy cryptocurrency mining sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” The court accepted this number.
In its defense, UniCredit cited “an inability to do business with digital currency providers and exchange platforms.” However, according to the court decision, this requirement was not confirmed in the written policies of the bank.
See also: The largest savings bank of Ukraine has suspended the purchase of Bitcoin for the hryvnia
UniCredit has already filed an appeal, calling the allegations unfounded:
“It is not final, binding and non-enforceable. Ucbl’s possible liability will only be determined after the final outcome of all available procedural remedies and, in any event, not before the filing of a final and binding decision by the Court of Appeal.”
The previous controversy regarding its attitude towards digital assets came in January 2022, when UniCredit had to officially retract its own tweet, stating that it does not prohibit its clients from investing in cryptocurrencies and does not intend to close their accounts over this.
