Riot upsized Bitcoin holdings by $69m
Major Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms added $69 million worth of the world’s leading cryptocurrency to its holdings.
According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Riot Platforms bought 667 Bitcoin (BTC), increasing its total crypto holdings to 17,429 BTC. Riot acquired this tranche at an average price of $101,135 per coin, bringing the total value of its Bitcoin balance to nearly $2 billion at the December 16 peak price of $106,000.
The company began mining Bitcoin in 2018 at its Oklahoma facility after shifting its corporate focus. Inspired by MicroStrategy Chairman Michael Saylor’s “sell shares, buy BTC” strategy, Riot expanded its approach to include Bitcoin purchases and share buybacks, further growing its crypto reserves.
By combining mining operations with strategic market purchases, Riot has generated a notable BTC yield. This metric measures the difference between BTC holdings and share dilution. Since the beginning of the fourth quarter, Riot has achieved a 36.7% BTC yield, with a year-to-date yield of 37.2%.
Despite ongoing debates surrounding the Saylor-instigated practice, BTC miners like Riot and other corporations have increasingly offered share rights to raise capital for Bitcoin purchases, albeit less aggressively than MicroStrategy.
Riot recently closed a $594 million convertible bond sale, channeling the proceeds to finance more BTC buys. Marathon Digital, another BTC miner, executed a similar plan – selling senior notes for cash to acquire BTC.
