Inevitable Collapse: Bitcoin Miner Argo Ditches London for Better Excuses

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Argo Blockchain, one of those early birds that jumped on the bitcoin bandwagon-probably before it was cool-announced on Tuesday that it will be peeling out of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Why? Because apparently, good old debt and bad decision-making just aren’t a winning combo. Lucky for them, they’re keeping their Nasdaq press pass. Talk about family loyalty, right?

This scoop is courtesy of Theminermag, your go-to source for the bitcoin mining industry’s latest high-stakes soap opera, packed with all the essential details like institutional bitcoin mining gossip.

The London-based miner (aka “The company that probably wishes it was still a jewel”) released a “practice statement” (fancy talk for “we’re kind of panicking but pretending it’s strategic”) detailing their plan for a glorious financial makeover. The goal? Reorganize debt, shake up equity, and probably pretend it’s not a desperate scramble. The first step in this circus is a court-supervised reorganization-because nothing screams stability like a courtroom thriller. The big dates? November 5 for the hearing, November 28 for the creditor and shareholder meetings, and December 8 for the court’s verdict-probably on whether they’ll be allowed to keep making bad decisions.

Come December 9 at 8 a.m., the LSE will officially say “bye-bye,” and Argo will no longer have to follow pesky UK rules about transparency, market abuse, or basically anything that keeps a company from doing shady stuff. They’ll still have to pretend to be honorable for two years post-delist, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Meanwhile, in the grand game of Monopoly, Argo’s main creditor-Growler Mining LLC, because what’s a debt story without a growling metaphor-will walk away owning 87.5% of the company. Bondholders? They’ll get a shiny 10%. The shareholders, bless their hearts, are left holding a tiny 2.5% sliver of hope, and possibly a mountain of disappointments. They’ve already drained over $5 million from a $7.5 million loan, so this isn’t their first rodeo with bad choices.

Back in 2017, Argo was among the pioneer bitcoin miners brave enough to go public, debuting on the LSE-and later bragging about a Nasdaq listing in 2021. During the peak of the crypto boom, they maxed out credit cards to build the Texas-sized Helios data center. But when bitcoin decided to belly-flop in 2022, Argo cut its losses by selling Helios to Galaxy Digital. Ah, the joys of speculative expansion.

Now, left with outdated Antminers-kind of the digital equivalent of a flip phone-profits are shrinking after the April 2024 bitcoin halving cut block rewards in half. Rising hosting fees and aging equipment have made it pretty clear that the only thing growing here is the debt, leading us to today’s charming predicament: a good old-fashioned restructuring. Cheers to economic cycles and bad investment instincts!

The full spectacle can be viewed here. Grab some popcorn.

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2025-10-23 08:03