Malikie Innovations has initiated legal proceedings against two leading companies in the bitcoin mining sector — MARA Holdings (formerly Marathon Digital Holdings) and Core Scientific. The reason is the alleged illegal commercial exploitation of elliptic curve-based cryptography (ECC), which Malikie claims is covered by their patents.
This is reported by Finway
The Essence of the Lawsuit: Risks for the Mining Industry
Malikie Innovations, which acquired 32,000 patents from the Canadian corporation BlackBerry in 2023, filed a lawsuit against MARA Holdings and Core Scientific in May 2025. The company believes that these miners are using patented encryption methods in their bitcoin mining activities, violating Malikie’s intellectual property rights.
“This case concerns breakthrough innovations in elliptic curve cryptography […], which were subsequently recognized and adopted by bitcoin developers,” the lawsuit materials state.
If the lawsuit is successful, Malikie Innovations could claim royalties for the past six years, potentially amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, which, according to legal experts, could lead to the bankruptcy of the defendants.
Legal Assessment and Potential Consequences
Attorney Aaron Brogan notes that mining companies often become targets for patent lawsuits due to their significant financial resources. He warns that if Malikie Innovations wins, it could set a legal precedent that may trigger a wave of similar lawsuits against other miners in the U.S., posing a threat to the security of the entire bitcoin network.
However, several experts believe that Malikie Innovations is primarily driven by financial motives rather than an intent to harm the industry. Cayman Islands crypto lawyer Michael Bachina explained that “patent trolls” mainly seek compensation through settlement rather than pursuing the case to the end in court.
AMLBot lawyer Niko Demchuk points out the ambiguity surrounding the lawsuit’s prospects, particularly if the patents are expired or only pertain to technical details that arose before the implementation of ECC in the bitcoin network. Bachina also added that even if a violation is recognized, it is crucial to establish whether the use of open source by miners actually constitutes copyright infringement.
It is worth noting that MARA’s crypto reserve currently stands at 49,179 BTC, and in May, the company mined a record number of bitcoins following the 2024 halving.