In the spring of 2026 a company that had spent nearly a decade mining bitcoin changed its name, its country and its answer to a simple question: what is a cheap power plug worth?
Bitfarms was a bitcoin miner, built on the idea that cheap electricity could be turned into digital coins. The best-known name tied to the beginning is Emiliano Grodzki, and the founders have kept low profiles. What is clear is the arc. Mining was a business at the mercy of one price. When bitcoin fell, margins collapsed. When it rose, rivals poured in.
To raise cash for the build-out, the company planned to sell bitcoin it had once been proud to hold.
The company's chief executive, Ben Gagnon, described the shift plainly. A year before the rebrand, he said, the company had set out on a transformational plan to pivot away from bitcoin. The thought was that the same grids and sites that powered mining machines could host computers for artificial intelligence, where customers sign long contracts and pay for reliable power.
The pivot had a price. Revenue reached US$229m in 2025, up 72%, yet losses widened. In the first quarter of 2026, revenue fell 23% to US$37m and the company lost US$145m. An analyst pointed to US$588m of convertible notes as a worry. To raise cash for the build-out, the company planned to sell bitcoin it had once been proud to hold.
On April 1, 2026, Bitfarms completed its move from Canada to the United States and became Keel Infrastructure, trading as KEEL on Nasdaq and the Toronto exchange, with its only principal executive office in New York City. It describes itself as a North American digital infrastructure and energy company that develops and owns data centres and energy assets for demanding computing, including AI. By May it reported liquidity of about US$533m, made up of US$336m in cash and US$197m in unencumbered bitcoin.
There is a founder lesson in the keel itself. A keel is the part of a ship you never see, and it is what keeps the vessel upright. A miner builds on a commodity it cannot control. A company that owns the power and the buildings owns something customers will pay to rent whatever the next technology is.
Whether the bet pays off is still open. The share price, about US$4.30 in May 2026, reflects that. But the direction is clear: the people who mined coins are now trying to sell the ground they stood on.