UPDATED 02:51 EDT / JANUARY 28 2015

Bitcoin News For 2015 With SiliconANGLE NEWS

Adiós: Cointerra goes bankrupt as Bitcoin mining now uneconomical

Bitcoin News For 2015 With SiliconANGLE

Bitcoin mining company Cointerra Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas after a fall in the price of Bitcoin made its Bitcoin mining business uneconomical.

Problems at Cointerra first emerged January 14th when it was sued by Utah-based C7 Data Centers Inc., who alleged that CoinTerra acted in bad faith by intentionally underpaying for services, and further demonstrated a pattern of late repayment. C7 was seeking $5.4 million in damages.

The Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition was filed on January 24th with Cointerra disclosing that they had hundreds of creditors who they owed between $10 million and $50 million; assets were listed at the same range. The assets will likely be liquidated through the bankruptcy in an effort to repay secured creditors, but the company noted that it may not be able to pay all unsecured creditors.

Launched in August of 2013, Cointerra launched as a “hardware and software company that designs, produces and operates systems that power the Bitcoin blockchain,” a Bitcoin mining product offering that wasn’t particularly well received by customers, who started making complaints to the Better Business Bureau in 2014. Claims included that the mining computers didn’t meet the standards that CoinTerra was promising, and users who wanted their money back were unable to obtain refunds.

Cointerra had raised $2.26 million at its time of bankruptcy: $960,000 through a convertible note and a seed round of $1.3 million from nine undisclosed investors.

Founder and CEO Ravi Iyengarwas previously held the position of lead central processing unit architect at Samsung Corp. and had worked at Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp. before that.

The bankruptcy follows the closure of competitor CEX.IO last week as the current price of Bitcoin makes the cost of Bitcoin mining uneconomical for most.


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.

  • 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
  • 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network.
About SiliconANGLE Media
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.

Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.