HashFast's $1 Million Question: Is Bitcoin a Currency or Commodity?
Although multiple regulators and judges have attempted to legally classify bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, a Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco has an opportunity to determine whether bitcoin should be treated like a commodity or like US currency. In HashFast Technologies LLC v Lowe, the Bankruptcy Court is being asked to determine whether the recipient of a transfer of bitcoins has to return (a) the actual bitcoins transferred or their current value (treat them as property), or (b) the value of the bitcoins on the day they were transferred (treat them as currency). In HashFast, the....
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Bitcoin’s status as either a currency or a commodity is at the center of a California lawsuit between a bitcoin mining computer company and a person the company paid to promote it, according to The Recorder, a California legal and technology newspaper. Marc Lowe, a California doctor, received payment in bitcoin to promote HashFast Technologies’ bitcoin mining computer. HashFast Technologies filed for bankruptcy in 2014 and its bankruptcy trustees claim the doctor was overpaid and want him to return the payment of 3,000 bitcoin, now worth $1.2 million. They argued bitcoin is a commodity....
A US district judge has ruled, for the purposes of a bankruptcy case in California, that bitcoins are a kind of intangible property. As reported earlier this month by CoinDesk, the US Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California is hearing a case filed by the bankruptcy trustee for HashFast, a bitcoin mining firm that declared bankruptcy in 2014. The trustee is suing a former promoter for HashFast, Mark Lowe, and is seeking the return of 3,000 bitcoins alleged to have been fraudulently transferred to Lowe prior to the firm's collapse. In recent weeks, both sides have submitted....
A California bankruptcy court is set to weigh in on whether bitcoin should be considered a currency. The hearing, set for 19th February, follows months of legal wrangling between the trustee of bankrupt bitcoin mining firm HashFast and Marc Lowe, a former promoter for the service who operated under the handle 'cyberdoc'. Trustee Michael Kasolas filed suit against Lowe in February of last year, seeking to recoup 3,000 bitcoins that had been paid by HashFast to Lowe for promoting the service, including a series of posts on the Bitcoin Talk forum. The trustees alleged that Lowe was an insider....
On June 7th, a US bankruptcy court granted HashFast a court ruling allowing it to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. HashFast had previously been faced with legal action and increasingly valid comparisons to fellow Bitcoin mining ASIC manufacturer Butterfly Labs (BFL). Just 3 months ago, I was standing at HashFast's booth at the Texas Bitcoin Conference looking at a hashing machine, an honor many paying customers seem to have been denied. Things change in an expedited manner when it comes to the world of Bitcoin. In May, HashFast announced that it would "refocus" while letting nonessential (50%....
Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer HashFast has avoided being forced into involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings by signing a deal with its creditors. Under the deal, signed in a federal bankruptcy court in San Francisco, HashFast will commit to an accelerated restructuring in order to meet its obligations. Mining company Liquidbits sought court approval last week for HashFast to enter an involuntary bankruptcy in order to recoup funds lost after HashFast failed to deliver on a $6m order. Ars Techina reported that HashFast is now able to resume part of its business. However, the....