Major North American Bitcoin Mining Farm Lays Off Some Employees Due to Coronavirus Pandemic

Bitfarms, a blockchain infrastructure company that operates one of the largest bitcoin mining farms in North America, is laying off employees, citing the ongoing economic and social unrest caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for the layoffs.

Coronavirus hits North American Bitcoin mining companies

The unexpected outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020 has hurt human health, financial markets, economies, and businesses. Many companies have had to take radical measures to survive the crisis, and the Bitcoin space is no exception.

One of these companies is Bitfarms, based in Toronto, Canada. It is a Bitcoin mining company operating in North America. However, according to a recent press release, it had to take “temporary measures to reduce staffing in accordance with government guidance.”

It also had to implement other permanent procedures to ensure its survival in these uncertain times. John Rim, the company’s chief financial officer, explained:

“Once fully implemented over the next few weeks, we expect the cost-saving measures to reduce our monthly general and administrative operating expenses by approximately 20% to 25%.

The pursuit of cost efficiency is consistent with our business model and theory that the most efficient miners, like Bitfarms, will be able to withstand short-term fluctuations in mining economics and remain profitable over the long term, including potential challenges related to the upcoming Bitcoin halving.”
Of course, Bitfarms isn’t the only Bitcoin-related business to feel the adverse effects of the new virus. As recently reported, Israel-based blockchain video content media BlockTV reduced its employees by nearly 80%.
The panic selling in mid-March and its aftermath

The Canadian mining company managed to maintain an average hash rate (hash rate) of 630 petahash per second (PH) per day from March 12 to March 19, the release said. During those days, the price of Bitcoin plunged 50% to below $4,000 and was slowly recovering. After March 20, Bitcoin basically remained above $6,000, and Bitfarms maintained an average hash rate of 750 PH.

As prices fell, miners were forced to shut down equipment to reduce costs. To make it easier for them to complete their mining work and receive block rewards, later that month Bitcoin underwent one of the most significant difficulty adjustments in history.

Bitfarms interim CEO and CSO Emiliano Grodzki also spoke about the mining difficulty adjustment:
“Mining is critical to the Bitcoin blockchain, and given the self-incentive model that Bitcoin mining is based on, we firmly believe that a combination of mining difficulty and Bitcoin price will continue to adjust to ensure profitability for the largest and most efficient miners to remain.”