The co-founder and CEO of Canadian bitcoin miner Bitfarms (BITF), Emiliano Grodzki, has resigned with immediate effect, the business announced on Thursday. President and Chief Operating Officer Geoffrey Morphy has been promoted to take his place.
Grodzki co-founded the business in 2017 with Nicolas Bonta and will continue to serve as a director. As executive chairman and board chairman, Bonta will now serve.
“In a little over two years, Geoff helped transform Bitfarms from a purely Canadian company trading on the TSX Venture Exchange with five farms in Quebec to an international powerhouse traded on both the Nasdaq and TSX with 10 operating farms in four countries driving over 4.4 exahashes per second (EH/s) today,” Bonta said in the statement. Exahash is a measure of computing power.
High energy costs and declining bitcoin (BTC) prices have had a negative impact on the value of bitcoin miners. Compute North’s and Core Scientific’s (CORZ) bankruptcies and the possibility that more companies, like Greenidge Generation, will file for Chapter 11 protection have made the industry’s mood even worse (GREE). Bitfarms were not exempt. With a roughly $85 million market worth, the company’s shares have fallen 92% so far this year.
In order to remain afloat, Bitfarms has been working to lower its debt load. It paid down $27 million in debt last month in an effort to strengthen its balance sheet.
The company operates 10 mining facilities in Canada, the United States, Paraguay, and Argentina. It mostly mines bitcoin using hydroelectric power. In Thursday’s premarket trading, its shares rose 3.5%.
