In brief
- Riot Platforms sold 475 Bitcoin for $38.8 million in April to fund operations and avoid equity dilution.
- The sale follows Bitcoin’s April 2024 halving, which cut miner rewards by 50% and drove a 13% drop in Riot’s monthly production.
- Rising network difficulty and sub-ATH prices continue to squeeze miner margins, prompting broader industry selloffs.
Riot Platforms sold $38.8 million worth of Bitcoin in April, as the second-largest publicly traded Bitcoin miner by market capitalization moves to shore up liquidity amid tightening margins across the mining sector.
The Castle Rock, Colo.–based firm offloaded 475 BTC last month at an average price of $81,731 per coin, according to its operations update on Monday.
Riot mined 463 of those tokens in April, with the remaining 12 drawn from reserves. The company retained 19,211 BTC on its balance sheet, worth roughly $1.8 billion at current market prices.
“During the month of April, we made the strategic decision to sell our monthly production of bitcoin to fund ongoing growth and operations,” Riot CEO Jason Les said. He added that the move reduces the company’s reliance on equity financing, limiting shareholder dilution.
Bitcoin Miner Riot Platforms Gets $100M Credit Facility From Coinbase
Publicly listed Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms has secured a credit facility of up to $100 million from Coinbase Credit, the lending arm of the U.S.-based crypto exchange giant. The Bitcoin-backed facility is secured by a portion of Riot Platforms’ Bitcoin holdings and will be used to "pursue key strategic initiatives.” “Riot has entered into its first bitcoin-backed facility, which provides us with non-dilutive funding at an attractive cost of financing,” Riot CEO Jason Les said in a statement....
The sale comes amid mounting pressure on miners following Bitcoin’s fourth halving event in mid-April last year, which cut block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
While such events are historically bullish for Bitcoin’s price, they have also rendered mining operations less profitable overnight. Riot’s Bitcoin production fell 13% month-over-month, even as its deployed hash rate remained flat.
Rising network difficulty has further eroded margins.
As of May 4, the average mining difficulty had climbed to 119 trillion hashes, a 35% increase year-over-year, according to data provider CoinWarz.
Although Bitcoin has gained 47% over the past year and recently traded near $94,000, it remains below its January all-time high of $109,000.
Bitcoin Miners Are Selling More BTC to Make Ends Meet: CryptoQuant
Bitcoin miners continue to feel the crunch, with firms in the space selling more coins than usual to make ends meet. Data firm CryptoQuant said in a Tuesday report that miners last week stepped up their selling as the price of the biggest cryptocurrency dropped below $80,000. The firm said that on April 7, miners sold a total of 15,000 BTC—the third-largest daily outflow this year. That's at least $1.12 billion worth, based on the day's low price of less than $75,000. Increased market volatil...
That modest retreat has been enough to strain operations that depend on sustained high prices to cover rising energy and infrastructure costs.
On April 7, Bitcoin miners collectively sold 15,000 BTC—the third-largest single-day outflow of 2025—according to data firm CryptoQuant.
Riot shares fell 5.84% on Monday to close at $7.90.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
Editor's note: This story's headline was updated after publication for clarity.
