They then stated at the end of July that the ASIC tape-out had been done a while ago. Since it wasn't specifically stated at the end of
June, I will assume that tape-out hadn't been done yet. I will also assume that in their July statement, 'a while ago' is two weeks, since
in the Bitcoin world, 2 weeks is a while ago.
The reason they came in and posted that they had taped out was that a bunch of people in the thread were demanding to know why they had never announced that they'd taped-out, the way other ASIC companies had. As if the fact they hadn't publicly announced their tape-out meant that they hadn't done so.
So the reason they mentioned they'd taped out when they did is because that's when people started demanding answers about it.