Butterfly Labs Resumes Shipping, Sets Timetable for Refunds

Butterfly Labs has resumed shipping its Monarch hardware and issuing bitcoin refunds to select customers.

The embattled bitcoin mining company issued a statement earlier this week via its website and redesigned the platform to offer services to customers whose orders have not been fulfilled.

The update follows Butterfly Labs' recent legal win against the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on 15th December when a US District Court rejected a request by the FTC for an injunction, asset freeze and appointment of a receiver.

Following the ruling, BFL was free to resume business. However, the FTC is still suing the company as part of an ongoing case, and a number of customers have taken separate legal action against the company in a bid to recover damages for shipment delays.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Butterfly Labs vice president Jeff Ownby explained his company's view on the developing situation:

"On 23rd December, the Court handed control of the company and assets back to Butterfly Labs. Monarch shipments resumed on 29th December. Bank and bitcoin accounts were returned to us on December 30th. Payment of refunds in bitcoin resumed on December 31 and activations of cloud mining service also started on this day."

Although Butterfuly Labs was allowed to resume limited operations in October while it was managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the company’s options remained limited until late December.

Customer impact

On its website, Butterfly Labs states that its operations are still "severely limited", and that it needs to assess all aspects of its business and determine the damage caused by the temporary shutdown last year.

Customers who ordered Monarch miners could see their shipments fulfilled with added discounts, or can submit a request for a refund. Refunds can be requested on the customer dashboard, via the Refund Request page.

"Had the company not been shut down, the order queue probably would have been fulfilled by early November 2014," Ownby asserted.

Refund pricing information can be found on the updated website.

Refunds resume

Butterfly Labs said refund and rebate payments will be processed in the order received, including those which were on hold during the FTC action.

Ownby also dismissed rumours that the FTC forced the company to start refunding customers, telling CoinDesk:

"Contrary to reports in some publications that we're only now paying refunds due to the FTC, we were paying refunds well before the shutdown. In fact, the shutdown stopped all refunds. Now that we're back in control, refunds have resumed."

The company clarified its timetable for fiat and bitcoin refunds, as well, in formal announcements.

“We will resume paying refunds and rebates as soon as we’re operationally ready," the company said. "We anticipate being able to start paying refunds in bitcoin in January. Because the cost of the temporary receivership and our legal defense against the FTC have consumed a substantial portion of our cash reserves, we anticipate being able to resume cash refund and rebate payments in late January or February.”

Butterfly Labs also said it is handling all return merchandise authorization (RMA) requests and getting in touch with customers that submitted requests and did not hear back from the company, advising customers to check their dashboards and spam folders for messages.

Computer mining image via Shutterstock