Bitcoin Miner Argo’s CEO Thomas Chippas Steps Down

Argo Blockchain has announced that its CEO, Thomas Chippas, will step down effective February 28, 2025, as the company continues to navigate the challenges of Bitcoin mining.

In a release issued Tuesday, Argo stated it is conducting an executive search to identify a successor. In the interim, Chief Financial Officer Jim MacCallum will assume the role of interim CEO.

Chippas, who joined Argo in November 2023, previously founded ErisX, a crypto spot and derivatives trading firm. ErisX was acquired by the Chicago Board Options Exchange in October 2021, during the peak of the cryptocurrency market’s bull run.

During his tenure at Argo, Chippas focused on strengthening the company’s balance sheet and repaying a loan from Galaxy Digital ahead of schedule. However, his departure comes after just over a year in the role.

Argo did not provide specific reasons for Chippas’s decision to step down. His departure coincides with the company’s ongoing efforts to source colocation facilities to host a large portion of its mining fleet.

As previously reported, Argo’s colocation host, Galaxy Digital, ended their contract on December 28, 2024, prompting the company to evaluate alternative sites for housing more than 23,000 units of S19j Pro Antminers, or about 2.3 EH/s. That accounts for 85% of Argo’s capacity of 2.7 EH/s.

At the current Bitcoin hashprice of $60/PH/s, an S19j Pro with an efficiency of 30 J/TH generates a revenue of about $0.083 per kilowatt-hour. This means that any hosting fee higher than this threshold would result in Argo’s miners operating at a gross loss.