Another Crypto Exec Leaves: Argo Blockchain’s CFO Resigns
One of the leading bitcoin miners – Argo Blockchain – announced that its CFO and CEO Alex Appleton stepped down from his position.
Several other crypto (or related) executives have exited their positions during the prolonged bear market. Such examples are Sam Bankman-Fried from FTX, Alex Mashinsky from Celsius Network, Jesse Powell from Kraken, Michael Saylor from MicroStrategy and many others.
The last thing on the list
Alex Appleton, who spent two and a half years at Argo Blockchain, will no longer serve as CFO of the company. According to a post on Twitter, he will focus on opportunities different from the crypto mining sector.
On his departure, Appleton said he was proud of his achievements at the firm. He added that the niche has “huge potential” and wished his former colleagues “all the best” for the future.
His departure comes shortly after Argo Blockchain agreed to sell its Helios plant to Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital for $65 million and thereby reduce its total debt.
The crypto winter and a powerful storm that passed through Texas around Christmas severely crippled the firm’s operations. It extracted only 147 BTC in December, around 25% less than the production levels recorded in November. Argo had 141 BTC at the end of 2022, equivalent to approximately $3.2 million (calculated at today’s prices).
Who else resigned?
The list of executives associated with the crypto industry who stepped down from their posts spreads far and wide, and here are some of the most famous people.
The departure tour started with Jack Dorsey – the former CEO of Twitter and an ardent proponent of bitcoin – who resigned at the end of 2021.
The trend escalated during the bear market of 2022. Compass Mining CEO – Whit Gibbs – and CFO Jodie Fisher Resigned in June, while Binance Labs lost its leader – Bill Qian. CEO of blockchain company Algorand – Steven Kokinos – followed in July.
August started with the resignation of bitcoin enthusiast Michael Saylor. He shifted from CEO of MicroStrategy to CEO.
Kraken founder Jesse Powell joined club in September after serving as CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange for over a decade.
Genesis’ Michael Moro left a few days later, but that did not ease the situation of the platform. It archived for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the end of January 2023.
Celsius’ Alex MashinskyBitMEXs Alexander Höptnerand polka dots Gavin Wood has also given notice.
The infamous crash of FTX led to a new wave of departing executives last November. Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, who run Alameda Research, lost their jobs and later begged guilty of federal criminal charges for helping Sam Bankman-Fried orchestrate a fraudulent scheme.
SBF too resigned as the CEO of FTX, but claimed that he should not be blamed for the gigantic collapse of his trading floor that led to the loss of several billions of investors.
