Bitcoin Mining Giant in the Making? Riot Reveals Bitfarms Takeover Plan

Bitcoin mining giant Riot has announced plans to try and snap up smaller miner Bitfarms in a hostile takeover, which if successful would turn the resulting entity into the world’s largest publicly-traded miner. 

The American miner announced Tuesday that it had made a private proposal last month, but Bitfarms rejected the offer. 

Riot said today it has accumulated a 9.25% stake in Bitfarms to become the miner’s largest shareholder—and is now offering to buy it for $2.30 per share. 

Bitfarms shares (NASDAQ: BITF) were up on the news and have today risen by nearly 8%, currently trading for $2.18 a pop. 

“We were disappointed to learn that the Bitfarms board rejected our compelling proposal without engaging in substantive dialogue with us,” Riot executive chairman Benjamin Yi said in a statement. 

“While we have long respected Bitfarms’ business and management team, we are confident that Bitfarms’ shareholders will agree that this proposal represents a significantly more attractive alternative for Bitfarms than its standalone trajectory,” he added.

Riot CEO Jason Less said that Bitfarms had mismanaged its business, following the recent dismissal of Bitfarms CEO Geoffrey Morphy.

“We are deeply concerned that the founders on the Bitfarms board—Nicolas Bonta and Emiliano Grodzki—may not be acting in the best interests of all Bitfarms shareholders,” he said, adding that the abrupt termination of Morphy and the fired executive’s lawsuit “raise serious questions.”

Bitfarms fired Morphy this month after he filed a lawsuit against the miner claiming $27 million in damages for breach of contract. The company declined to respond to Decrypt’s questions.

Edited by Andrew Hayward