One of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining firms, Bitfarms, has been forced to halt all operations at its Rio Cuarto site in Argentina.
Bitfarms had the power switched off at the 58MW site in Rio Cuarto after the local company responsible for supplying energy to the facility, Generación Mediterránea S.A. (GMSA), was forced to pause its energy pipeline amid a credit restructuring dispute.
Launched in 2022, the 58MW Rio Cuarto site is Bitfarms’ second-largest Bitcoin mining facility in South America, just behind its 70MW Paso Pe site in Paraguay. Announced in 2021, the company said at the time the Argentina site could offer up to 210MW across four buildings at full build-out.
The shutdown of the Argentina site means that around 13 percent of Bitfarms’ overall mining capacity is now offline.
“On April 30 2025, the Company was informed that its electricity supplier at Rio Cuarto, Argentina, Generación Mediterránea S.A., appointed local and international financial advisors to conduct a process with their creditors regarding the restructuring of all its financial debt, but confirmed that the company would be able to continue consuming power at the Rio Cuarto site,” the company stated in its Q1 2025 MD&A report.
However, Bitfarms was notified on May 12 that power being directed to the Rio Cuarto site would stop until further notice.
“At this stage, there is uncertainty around the potential resumption of the supply of electricity and the timing thereof. This event has necessitated a pause in the company’s cryptocurrency Mining activities in Argentina and, unless resolved, may significantly impact the operations in that country,” Bitfarms added.
Bitfarms noted that it is unsure whether or not the Rio Cuarto site will be made operational again, and is now evaluating all of its options for its Argentina operations.
Launched in 2017, Bitfarms currently has 15 Bitcoin mining data centers operating across the United States, Canada, and Argentina. It recently sold a site in Paraguay to HIVE Digital.
In March, Bitfarms expanded its mining operations with the purchase of two stranded mining facilities from Stronghold Digital. In April, the company secured a $100m loan from Macquarie Equipment Capital, Inc., to help fund its Panther Creek High-Performance Computing (HPC) project in Pennsylvania.
