Marathon Digital has been penalized $138M for violating a non-disclosure, non-circumvention agreement with former executive Michael Ho.
The largest Bitcoin mining company by market capitalization, Marathon Digital, has reportedly been fined $138 million for violating a non-disclosure or non-circumvention agreement.
In his violation of contract litigation against Marathon Digital Holdings, Michael Ho, the chief strategy officer of mining company Hut 8 and co-founder of US Bitcoin Corp, received a unanimous jury verdict.
A non-circumvention agreement is a legally enforceable agreement that safeguards firms or individuals from being circumvented by other parties involved in a transaction.
Affeld England & Johnson, the law firm that represented Ho, disclosed in a press release that the executive devised a growth strategy for Marathon in 2020. This strategy included the establishment of a large-scale Bitcoin mining facility in North America.
The law company says that Marathon broke their agreement with Ho when they used his plan without paying him for the confidential information he gave them. This was a major breach of their non-circumvention agreement.
David Affeld, one of the partners at Affeld England & Johnson who tried the case, stated that the verdict underscores the significance of selecting the appropriate business partners and honoring commitments.
Affeld also stated that the unanimous jury verdict for $138 million validates Ho’s expertise and efforts. Affeld worked in conjunction with Gregg Zucker of Foundation Law Group, who had initiated the initial lawsuit.
Marathon Digital did not respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment. Marathon Digital Holdings remains the world’s largest Bitcoin mining firm in terms of market capitalization, despite the lawsuit. The company’s valuation stands at $6.77 billion, surpassing CleanSpark, the second-largest mining firm, by 48%. Based on data from CompaniesMarketCap, CleanSpark has a market capitalization of $4.13 billion.
The operational hashrate of Marathon Digital was doubled from the previous year in June, reaching 26.3 exahashes per second. Improving its Ellendate facility, which was fully operational in July, was the reason for the increase. Marathon Digital’s CEO and chairman, Fred Thiel, reported that their mining pool captured 158 blocks during the month, representing a 10% increase from July 2023.
Also Read: ApeCoin DAO Wants to Build an Ape-Themed Hotel in the Middle of Bangkok
