Bitfarms still betting on Quebec despite growing pains in cryptocurrency field

MONTREAL — Bitfarms marketed itself last spring as a socially conscious company, harnessing unused, sustainable hydroelectricity to help power Quebec’s digital economy while also providing much-needed revenue for the province’s struggling regions.

But since that time, the cryptocurrency mining firm has run into difficulties.

Bitfarms lost its president and co-founder last month, along with three managers and other lower-level staff. Its stock price is trading roughly 30 per cent lower than when it was first listed on the TSXV exchange in July. And residents living near the company’s operations in Sherbrooke, Que., say the noise emanating from its operations is intolerable.

Bitfarms executives says they are not worried, explaining the recent departures as nothing more than growing pains. The company says it’s confident investors will come around to its stock’s true value. And as for the noise, Bitfarms says the 23-metre wall it has proposed…