COINLAB
Early-stage bitcoin infrastructure and incubation services provider.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | €0.0 | round | |
| N/A | $575k | Debt | |
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
CoinLab, Inc. was a venture-backed company founded in 2011 by Peter Vessenes and Mike Koss in Seattle. Initially, the company developed a service to help video game companies monetize their user base by utilizing players' idle computer processing power for Bitcoin mining, in exchange for in-game currency. It was one of the first companies in the Bitcoin space to receive traditional venture capital, securing a $500,000 seed round in 2012 from investors including Draper Venture Capital.
The company later pivoted its strategy to become a Bitcoin business incubator, aiming to build and launch foundational Bitcoin infrastructure businesses, such as its announced enterprise-scale mining company, Alydian. However, CoinLab is most known for its significant and ultimately contentious partnership with Mt. Gox, which was the world's largest Bitcoin exchange at the time. In late 2012, CoinLab entered an exclusive agreement to take over all of Mt. Gox's exchange services and client operations for the United States and Canada. The collaboration was intended to streamline transactions for North American customers and bring regulatory compliance and institutional-grade services to the market.
The partnership quickly deteriorated, and in May 2013, CoinLab filed a $75 million lawsuit against Mt. Gox, alleging breach of contract. CoinLab claimed that Mt. Gox failed to transfer the necessary customer accounts, data, and operational control as stipulated in their agreement. The legal battle became a central and complicating factor in the subsequent bankruptcy and civil rehabilitation proceedings of Mt. Gox following the exchange's collapse in 2014. CoinLab's claim against the Mt. Gox estate eventually grew to billions of dollars, significantly impacting the distribution of remaining assets to the exchange's creditors. While the company's operational activities ceased around 2014, its existence has been prolonged through these legal proceedings.
Keywords: bitcoin infrastructure, Mt. Gox, Peter Vessenes, Mike Koss, bitcoin mining, digital currency exchange, bitcoin incubator, cryptocurrency lawsuit, Alydian, Draper Venture Capital, bitcoin history, early crypto startups, FinCEN, virtual currency, blockchain finance, crypto legal dispute, Seattle startup, game monetization, venture capital
