Bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain finished repaying $35 million it borrowed from asset manager Galaxy Digital in 2022 to stave off bankruptcy amid that year’s crypto bear market, according to an Aug. 12 company filing.
The repayment marks “a significant milestone for Argo” and was accomplished “without any meaningful impact to Argo’s hashrate,” Argo CEO Thomas Chippas said in a statement. Hashrate indicates the computational power of a cryptocurrency mining operation and directly relates to how much Bitcoin BTCUSD a miner can earn in a given period.
In December 2022, Argo narrowly avoided bankruptcy by agreeing to a multi-part deal with Galaxy that included selling its Helios Bitcoin mining facility in Dickens County, Texas for $65 million and refinancing its debt with a $35-million loan.
The loan was collateralized by Argo’s “23,619 Bitmain S19J Pro mining machines currently operating at Helios and certain machines located at Argo’s Canadian data centers,” Argo said. As part of the deal, Argo agreed to lease back space in Helios to keep running its Bitcoin mining equipment.