Alex Appleton, the Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director of Argo Blockchain, recently announced his resignation from the company. Appleton spent two and a half years at Argo Blockchain and said he was proud of his achievements during his time there. His departure comes shortly after Argo Blockchain agreed to sell its Helios facility to Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital for $65 million.
The crypto winter and a severe storm that passed through Texas around Christmas have caused many other crypto (or related) executives to abandon their posts during the prolonged bear market. These include Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX, Alex Mashinsky of Celsius Network, Jesse Powell of Kraken, Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Whit Gibbs and Jodie Fisher of Compass Mining, Bill Qian of Binance Labs, Steven Kokinos of Algorand, Michael Moro of Genesis, Alexander Höptner of BitMEX, Gavin Wood of Polkadot, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang of Alameda Research.
The departure spree started with Jack Dorsey in late 2021, and the trend escalated during the 2022 bear market. Michael Saylor shifted from the CEO of MicroStrategy to its Executive Chairman in August, and Kraken’s Founder Jesse Powell joined the club in September after serving as the CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange for over a decade. In November, the infamous crash of FTX prompted a new wave of departing execs, including Sam Bankman-Fried.
Overall, the crypto industry has seen a significant number of executives resign from their posts due to the prolonged bear market. Alex Appleton is the latest to join this list, and he wishes his former colleagues “all the best” for the future.
