Federal Court Allows Nvidia Crypto Mining Lawsuit Against Jensen Huang to Proceed
A U.S. federal court ruled a lawsuit against Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang can proceed over allegations the company concealed how much revenue came from crypto mining.
A U.S. federal court has certified a class action lawsuit against Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang, allowing hundreds of thousands of investors to collectively pursue securities fraud claims over allegations the chipmaker concealed more than $1 billion in GPU revenue derived from cryptocurrency mining.
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued the class certification order on March 25, 2026. The ruling covers investors who purchased Nvidia common stock between August 10, 2017, and November 15, 2018.
Nvidia paid $5.5 million to the SEC in 2022 for failing to disclose that cryptocurrency mining, not just gaming demand, was materially driving its GPU revenue during the 2017-2018 crypto surge. The same undisclosed conduct is now at the heart of the shareholder class action against Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang.
The class certification is the latest blow in a legal saga that has already survived a Ninth Circuit appeal and a Supreme Court rejection of Nvidia’s dismissal bid in December 2024. It marks the most consequential procedural milestone yet, converting individual investor grievances into a unified action with potentially billions of dollars at stake.
What the Court Found and What Investors Allege
Plaintiffs, represented by law firm Kessler Topaz, allege that Nvidia knowingly misrepresented the source of its GPU revenue during the 2017-2018 cryptocurrency boom. The complaint claims the company told investors its surging sales were driven by gaming demand while internally tracking over $1 billion in GPU purchases by crypto miners.
Estimates of the concealed crypto-related GPU sales range from $1.126 billion based on an internal Nvidia study to $1.35 billion according to an RBC Capital Markets analysis. The claims fall under the Securities Exchange Act’s Rule 10b-5, which prohibits materially misleading statements in connection with securities transactions.
A critical piece of evidence in the certification ruling was an internal Nvidia executive email. The email acknowledged that the company’s stock price remained elevated because of earlier misleading statements about its crypto exposure. Judge Gilliam cited this directly in his order.
“The court cannot conclude that there was no price impact in the face of such evidence.”
– Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr., U.S. District Court, N.D. California
Nvidia attempted to rebut the presumption that its statements influenced investor decisions on a class-wide basis, a legal requirement for class certification. The court found Nvidia failed to meet that burden, clearing the path for the case to proceed collectively rather than forcing each investor to file individually.
The SEC had already reached its own conclusion on the matter. In 2022, the agency fined Nvidia $5.5 million for failing to disclose that crypto mining was a significant driver of GPU revenue during fiscal year 2018. Nvidia paid the penalty without admitting or denying the findings.
What This Means for Nvidia Shareholders and the Crypto-AI Narrative
The class period at the center of this dispute, August 2017 through November 2018, spans the peak and collapse of retail crypto mining demand. When Nvidia finally disclosed in November 2018 that gaming revenue had fallen short partly due to “post crypto channel inventory” taking longer to clear, the stock dropped approximately 28.5% over just two trading sessions.
Nvidia shares fell approximately 54% in the fourth quarter of 2018 after the company disclosed a sharp inventory glut from collapsed crypto mining demand. Shareholders who bought stock during the alleged concealment period suffered significant losses, forming the basis of the class action now permitted to proceed.
Nvidia has since reinvented itself as the dominant supplier of AI training and inference hardware, with its GPUs powering the infrastructure behind generative AI. But the unresolved class action keeps a spotlight on the company’s track record of revenue transparency, particularly regarding how it categorizes demand across end markets.
The plaintiff complaint argued that Nvidia’s leadership had clear incentives to obscure the crypto revenue mix. As Kessler Topaz stated in its filing, “Defendants refused to publicly acknowledge that NVIDIA’s proliferating sales were the result of fickle cryptocurrency miners, lest investors discount the Company’s stock to reflect the volatility of crypto-related demand.”
The intersection of crypto and AI hardware markets remains a live topic for investors. Developments like recent spot Bitcoin ETF inflow shifts and emerging AI-blockchain infrastructure projects illustrate how deeply these sectors now overlap, making Nvidia’s historical handling of crypto revenue disclosures more than just a backward-looking legal dispute.
A successful plaintiff outcome could result in substantial damages given the class size and the magnitude of Nvidia’s stock decline during the relevant period. It could also set a precedent for how publicly traded companies disclose revenue tied to volatile crypto-related demand, at a time when institutional crypto exposure through ETFs continues to reshape market dynamics.
The next scheduled event is a case management conference on April 21, 2026, where the court and parties will map out the path toward discovery and a potential trial date. Settlement discussions could also emerge now that class certification raises the financial exposure for Nvidia significantly.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.
