Core Scientific promotes Adam Sullivan to chief executive

Core Scientific has hired Adam Sullivan as CEO, replacing co-founder Mike Levitt in the role. 

Sullivan previously served as Core Scientific’s president, and Levitt will remain as chair of the board. 

The shakeup in the leadership comes roughly eight months after the bitcoin mining giant filed for bankruptcy. When the firm filed in December, it said its cash flow was still positive, but added that the money was insufficient to pay off an equipment financing loan.

Despite this, Core Scientific continued to mine bitcoin all throughout 2023 while insisting it plans to pay off its major debt holders. 

As recently as May, the company said it aims to emerge from Chapter 11 as soon as Sept. 25. 

Blockworks asked for an update on the bankruptcy, and a spokesperson said the process “is proceeding well.” The company anticipates emerging “later this year.”

According to a press release, Sullivan as president has been a key asset who “enhanced” the company’s restructuring process. 

“Core Scientific is extremely well positioned to emerge from the restructuring process as a more efficient, more focused and stronger company with a clear roadmap to expand our capacity cost-effectively as a North American leader in bitcoin mining,” Sullivan said in a statement. 

While Core Scientific hasn’t released its mining update for July yet, its latest numbers show that it produced 1,538 bitcoins (BTC) when combining its self-owned miners and its co-located mining services. The total potential hash rate was listed at 22.1 exahashes per second (EH/s) for June 2023, according to a press release.

A number of other publicly traded mining companies released July updates this week, including Marathon Digital, CleanSpark, Riot Platforms and Bitfarms. 

Core Scientific was slightly in the green at publish time, and it has seen a nearly 13% drop in the past five days.

---

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.