Crypto Chip Company Katena Wins Lawsuit Filed by Bitcoin Miner Coinmint

In a major victory for Katena Computing, an arbitration panel has ruled in favor of the crypto chip company, dismissing claims made by Bitcoin miner Coinmint. The panel awarded Katena $14 million, a significant blow to Coinmint’s allegations of deception and misrepresentation.

The lawsuit, filed by Coinmint last year, accused Katena of tricking the miner into a $150 million purchase agreement for bitcoin mining machines that were never delivered. Coinmint claimed that Katena bribed or influenced its former CFO, Michael Maloney, to secure the sale, knowing full well it wouldn’t be able to deliver the mining chips it was still developing.

However, the arbitration panel found that Katena did not violate its agreements or deceive Coinmint, denying all of Coinmint’s claims. The panel ruled that Coinmint and its executives independently chose to make the $150 million purchase, without pressure or influence from Katena.

“Katena submitted extensive evidence – without any evidentiary rebuttal or impeachment by Coinmint – concerning the design of the ASIC chip for the K10 and getting the chip design ready for submission to the foundry, including running simulations to test for errors in the chip’s design,” the arbitrators’ order said.

The panel also ruled that Katena did not misrepresent the state of the chip it was developing in marketing materials to Coinmint. Katena submitted evidence that it was actively working to manufacture the chips and miners it intended to sell to Coinmint, refuting one of Coinmint’s claims that Katena did not intend to produce the machines.

Coinmint plans to file a motion to vacate the arbitration award, citing issues with the arbitration process. However, Katena’s founder and partner, Michael Gao, is confident that the panel’s ruling is based on the facts of the case.

“We went through a full discovery process in which Katena produced everything according to the panel’s orders, in which Coinmint avoided producing everything,” Gao said. “We both had the opportunity to hire expert witnesses, obviously to defend our case. Coinmint did hire their own expert witness and they had the opportunity to review all of our technical plans, as well as anything in our due diligence report. So they had full access to basically all of the materials produced in discovery.”

The battle is far from over, as Coinmint plans to continue fighting the arbitration award. However, for now, Katena has emerged victorious, its reputation intact.

Bitcoin mining

Cryptocurrency chip

Lawsuit