Bitcoin Miner Bitfarms' CEO Resigns and Is Replaced by COO

Emiliano Grodzki, co-founder and CEO of Canadian bitcoin miner Bitfarms (BITF), has resigned, effective immediately, according to a company statement on Thursday. President and Chief Operating Officer Geoffrey Morphy has been promoted as his replacement.

The co-founder of the company in 2017 with Nicolas Bonta, Grodzki will remain as a director. Bonta will move from executive chairman to chairman of the board.

"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 exahash/second (EH/s) today," Bonta said in the statement. Exahash is a measure of computing power.

The valuations of bitcoin miners have suffered with high energy costs and falling bitcoin (BTC) prices. Sentiment in the sector was further shaken by the bankruptcies of Compute North and Core Scientific (CORZ) and the looming possibility of more companies filing for Chapter 11 protection like Greenidge Generation (GREE). Bitfarms hasn't been spared. Its stock is down 92% this year, and the company has a market cap of just $85 million.

Bitfarms has been trying to reduce its debt burden to stay afloat. Last month, it paid down $27 million in an effort to improve its balance sheet.

The company, which mostly uses hydroelectric energy to mine bitcoin, has 10 mining centers located in Canada, U.S., Paraguay and Argentina. Its shares were up 3.5% in premarket trading on Thursday.

Read more: Bitfarms Looks to Boost Liquidity With Sale of 1,500 Bitcoin, New Loan