On Tuesday, July 14, 2026, Law360 reported that a New York federal judge enforced a $28 million arbitration award granted to a Malta-based cryptocurrency executive and his two companies in a dispute with a Chinese bitcoin mining equipment supplier over allegedly defective machinery.
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon signed an order and final judgment requiring Wuhan-based Innosilicon Technology Ltd. to pay roughly $5.8 million to Blockstream Corp., $19.2 million to Thigmotropism LLC, and $715,000 to Adam Back, along with about $2.3 million in arbitration costs and $2.7 million in interest.
The ruling confirms and enforces two arbitral awards issued by Hong Kong’s International Arbitration Center in December 2023 and February 2024, stemming from a June 2023 arbitration proceeding. The first award established Innosilicon’s liability, while the second calculated damages, costs and interest in U.S. dollars.
Back, who resides in Malta, serves as chief executive of Montreal-based Blockstream. Court filings show that Back and his companies each contracted with Innosilicon to purchase bitcoin mining servers, commonly known as miners.
The petitioners alleged that Innosilicon knew the equipment was defective before it was shipped. After the first units arrived and problems surfaced, they say they notified Innosilicon, but the supplier failed to respond for months before eventually dispatching an employee who merely photographed the faulty machines and returned them to the company without resolving the issue.
The arbitration tribunal’s December 2023 decision found Innosilicon had breached each of its agreements with the petitioners and rejected all other claims and counterclaims not addressed in the award.
The petitioners’ combined losses amounted to nearly 1,900 bitcoin, which the tribunal valued at close to $6 million for Blockstream, more than $19 million for Thigmotropism, and over $715,000 for Back.
Judge McMahon’s order in the Southern District of New York formally converts the arbitration panel’s findings into an enforceable U.S. court judgment against Innosilicon.
Source: Law360
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