Ex-CBOE Digital Head Joins Bitcoin Miner Argo as CEO

Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ: ARBK) has hired the former head of CBOE Digital as its new chief executive officer, offering as much as 2.85 million units of Argo’s American Depositary Shares (ADS).

The Canada-based bitcoin mining firm said in an announcement on Monday that it has hired Thomas Chippas as its new CEO and board director with immediate effect.

The ADS offer comes in the capacity of performance share units, which will vest in the next three years based on performance criteria. Each Argo’s ADS is trading on the Nasdaq at $1.2 as of writing.

Chippas’ appointment comes nine months after Argo’s former CEO Peter Wall resigned from the capacity in Feburary.

Argo was one of the most financially stressed public bitcoin mining operations throughout the bear market. In December 2022, it had to sell its proprietary mining site in Helios, Texas, to Galaxy Digital to extinguish its outstanding loans owed to the financier.

It appears that Argo’s new CEO comes from a trading background. Chippas was most recently the CEO of CBOE Digital, the crypto trading arm of the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

He was the founder of crypto spot and derivatives trading firm ErisX, which was acquired by CBOE near the peak of the 2021 bull run in October.

According to a Reuters report in July, CBOE said it took a $460 million writedown on its acquisition of ErisX as the purchase was soon followed by the bear market.