Recent Developments
On January 28, 2020, Hut 8 announced that Andrew Kiguel would be stepping down from his role as CEO.
On February 21, 2020, Hut 8 successfully renegotiated the master service agreement and master purchase agreement with Bitfury. As part of this agreement, Hut 8 repaid US$4,750,000 of debt owed to Bitfury with funds from a new loan of US$5,000,000 from Genesis. The amendments allowed for increased autonomy for Hut 8 and reduction of costs.
On May 1, 2020, Andrew Kiguel formally stepped down as CEO of Hut 8 and Jimmy Vaiopoulos was appointed the Interim CEO. Kyle Appleby was appointed Interim CFO at this time and Viktoriya Griffin was appointed as Corporate Secretary.
On June 25, 2020, Hut 8 closed an overnight marketed public offering of units for gross proceeds of $8,338,161. Hut 8 used the funds to purchase Bitcoin mining equipment with output of approximately 275 PH/s.
On July 13, 2020, the Company announced that it had renegotiated key terms of the Genesis Credit Agreement. See “Summary Description of the Business — Material Contracts”.
On August 4, 2020, the Company announced that the management of the Medicine Hat facility operations have been transferred from Bitfury to the Company effective August 1, 2020.
On August 12, 2020, the Company announced operational updates, including receipt of 2,000 bitcoin miners from MicroBT, the beginning of a hosting arrangement for six full BlockBoxes and the transfer of its Bitfury Clarke chips, which are the Company’s latest generation technology before its recent order of MicroBT equipment, from the Drumheller facility to the Medicine Hat facility.
On September 2, 2020, the Company announced that the management of the Drumheller facility operations have been transferred from Bitfury to the Company effective August 28, 2020.
On September 18, 2020, the Company announced that it has received, on-site at its Medicine Hat facility, the planned 1,000 M31S and 1,000 M31S+ machines, most of which are already operating.
On October 9, 2020, the Company announced that it was the first TSX listed issuer to complete the TSX Sandbox program, an initiative to bring exceptional/novel entrants to the capital markets.
On November 2, 2020, the Company announced the appointment of Jaime Leverton as CEO, effective December 1, 2020. Jimmy Vaiopoulos, the Company’s former Interim CEO, returned to his previous position of Chief Financial Officer, effective December 1, 2020. Viktoriya Griffin also became the Company’s full-time Corporate Secretary on December 1, 2020.
On November 12, 2020, Bitfury filed a notice of intention to distribute securities of the Company. Certain officers, directors or partners of Bitfury are members of the Board, namely, William Ping Tai and Jeremy Paul Sewell.
On December 1, 2020, the Company announced that two new board members, Chris Eldredge and Sanjiv Samant were proposed to join the Company subject to a shareholder vote. In addition, Jaime Leverton, the Company’s CEO, was also included as a proposed board member and Dennis Mills did not seek re-election. All three board members were elected at the Company’s annual general meeting held on December 30, 2020.
On December 1, 2020, the Company also announced that it has made changes to increase the hash rate supply of the last portion of the Company’s Bitcoin mining equipment order to 153.4 PH/s from 139.9 PH/s, a 9.6% increase, by exchanging part of the ordered M30S units for M31S+ units. The Company ultimately received 1,000 M31S, 2,559 M31S+, and 343 M30S units from this order from MicroBT, which were delivered to its Medicine Hat facility between September 2020 and January 2021.
On December 16, 2020, the Company announced the appointment of Sue Ennis as Head of Investor Relations, effective January 4, 2021.