Riot Platforms, Inc. (Riot Platforms) operates as a vertically integrated Bitcoin mining company.
The company principally engaged in enhancing its power infrastructure to mine Bitcoin in the support of the Bitcoin blockchain. The company is also exploring the feasibility of developing a portion of its power capacity for AI/HPC uses. The company provides comprehensive and critical infrastructure for institutional-scale Bitcoin mining at its large-scale Bitcoin Mining facilities in Rockdale, Texa...
Riot Platforms, Inc. (Riot Platforms) operates as a vertically integrated Bitcoin mining company.
The company principally engaged in enhancing its power infrastructure to mine Bitcoin in the support of the Bitcoin blockchain. The company is also exploring the feasibility of developing a portion of its power capacity for AI/HPC uses. The company provides comprehensive and critical infrastructure for institutional-scale Bitcoin mining at its large-scale Bitcoin Mining facilities in Rockdale, Texas (the ‘Rockdale Facility’), Navarro County, Texas (the ‘Corsicana Facility’), and two Bitcoin mining sites in Paducah, Kentucky (the ‘Kentucky Facility’ and, together with the Rockdale Facility and the Corsicana Facility, its ‘Facilities’.
During 2024, the company completed Phase I of development of the Corsicana Facility, a second large-scale Bitcoin mining facility, equipped to provide up to 400 megawatts (MW) of capacity for its Bitcoin Mining. Upon completion, the Corsicana Facility is expected to have approximately one gigawatt (GW) of operational capacity available for the company’s business purposes. Additionally, in 2024, the company completed a transaction to acquire Block Mining, Inc. (‘Block Mining’), a Kentucky-based vertically integrated Bitcoin miner expanding its Facilities to include two operational sites, in Kentucky, totaling 60 MW of operational capacity with potential to expand up to 155 MW. Through the company’s acquisition of Block Mining (the ‘Block Mining Acquisition’), it also owns a greenfield expansion opportunity, adjacent to an existing substation, presenting the company with the ability to develop 60 MW of additional capacity, and the potential to expand up to 150 MW.
The company operates in an environment which is frequently evolving based on the proliferation of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. The company has determined that it is in the best interest of its business to undertake a formal process to evaluate the feasibility of developing the approximately 600 MW of remaining power capacity at the Corsicana Facility for AI/HPC uses with the intention of maximizing the potential of its assets. The company has engaged a leading consultant in the data center industry to conduct a feasibility assessment of the Corsicana Facility.
Segments
The company operates in two business segments, Bitcoin Mining and Engineering.
Bitcoin Mining
As of December 31, 2024, the company’s Bitcoin Mining business segment had a total deployed hash rate of 31.5 exahash per second (‘EH/s’). In 2024, it mined 4,828 Bitcoin. Based on the company’s existing operations and expected deliveries and deployment of miners it has purchased; the company anticipates having approximately 38.4 EH/s of total hash rate in operation by the end of 2025. All amounts are inclusive of the effects of the Block Mining Acquisition.
The company’s Bitcoin Mining operations are focused on maximizing its ability to successfully mine Bitcoin by growing the company’s hash rate (the amount of computer power it devotes to supporting the Bitcoin blockchain), to increase the company’s chances of successfully creating new blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain (a process known as ‘solving a block’). Generally, the greater share of the Bitcoin blockchain’s total network hash rate (the aggregate hash rate deployed to solving a block on the Bitcoin blockchain) a miner’s hash rate represents, the greater that miner’s chances of solving a block, and therefore, earning the block reward. The block reward is 3.125 Bitcoin plus transaction fees per block. As these new miner operators enter the market and as increasingly powerful miners are deployed to solve a block, the Bitcoin blockchain’s network hash rate grows, meaning existing miners must increase their hash rate at pace commensurate with the growth of network hash rate to maintain its relative chance of solving a block and earning a block reward. The company will need to continue growing its hash rate to compete in the company’s dynamic and highly competitive industry.
A key component of the Bitcoin Mining business segment is to acquire highly specialized computer servers (known in the industry as ‘miners’), which operate application-specific integrated circuit (‘ASIC’) chips designed specifically to mine Bitcoin. The company deploys such miners at-scale in its Facilities and utilize a combination of air cooled and immersion-cooled environments to maximize miner efficiency. The company’s Facilities, which are supported by its dedicated best-in-class team, enables the company’s large-scale Bitcoin Mining operations and provide the necessary infrastructure and available power capacity for it to continue scaling the company’s vertically integrated Bitcoin Mining business. The company’s miners are some of the most effective and energy-efficient miners available today, and its efficiency is constantly improving as the company replaces aging miners with new state-of-the-art models. The company’s miners are deployed in air-cooled environments and in quiet, immersion-cooled environments. By utilizing both methods of cooling it is able to continue growing the company’s hash rate and optimizing its miners’ capabilities. Immersion-cooling provides more efficient heat dissipation and reduced wear-and-tear compared to traditional air-cooled hardware, and with a smaller footprint and lower noise pollution. Air-cooling provides the company with greater power benefits as it do not have to divert energy to power the tanks and immersion systems required by immersion-cooling.
During the year ended December 31, 2023, the company entered into a long-term master purchase and sales agreement, dated as of June 23, 2023, as amended (the ‘Master Agreement’), with MicroBT Electronics Technology Co., LTD, through its manufacturing affiliate, SuperAcme Technology (Hong Kong) Limited (collectively, ‘MicroBT’) to secure the long-term supply of immersion miners from MicroBT, all of which are being manufactured in the United States. Pursuant to the Master Agreement, MicroBT agreed to provide the company with ready access to its newest and most powerful miners, at their most competitive prices. Through December 31, 2024, the company executed three purchase orders under the Master Agreement to acquire miners with a total hash rate of 31.4 EH/s. Delivery of the MicroBT miners initially began in the fourth quarter of 2023 and will be completed in monthly batches according to the delivery schedules specified under the applicable purchase order. All miners are expected to be received and deployed by mid-2025. Upon full deployment of these MicroBT miners, the company anticipates a total self-mining hash rate capacity of 38.4 EH/s.
Mining Pools
The company utilizes a type of mining pool that pays Bitcoin rewards utilizing a ‘Full-Pay-Per-Share’ payout of Bitcoin based on a contractual formula. The formula calculates payouts primarily based on the hash rate the company contributes to the mining pool, as a percentage of total network hash rate, along with other inputs. Under this system, the company is entitled to receive consideration even if the mining pool operator does not successfully solve a block.
Immersion-cooling
Phase I of the development of the Corsicana Facility involved the construction of 400 MW of immersion-cooled Bitcoin Mining infrastructure. The company anticipates that immersion-cooling technology will present many unique opportunities to increase efficiencies in Bitcoin mining and are constantly evaluating new and emerging technologies in the Bitcoin ecosystem to make its mining operations more efficient.
The company is continuing to test its immersion-cooling mining operations and, if the company desired performance metrics are achieved, it plans to leverage its infrastructure development capabilities to expand the implementation of the company’s immersion-cooled Bitcoin mining hardware to increase its Bitcoin mining hash rate without relying solely on purchasing additional new miners and mining equipment.
Engineering
The company’s Engineering business segment designs and manufactures power distribution equipment and custom engineered electrical products that provides it with the ability to vertically integrate many of the critical electrical components and engineering services necessary for the Corsicana Facility development and Rockdale Facility expansion. This integration helps reduce the company’s execution and counter-party risk in its ongoing and future expansion projects. The specialized talent employed in the company’s Engineering business segment also allows it the opportunity to explore new methods to optimize and develop best-in-class Bitcoin mining operations and has been instrumental in the development of the company’s industrial-scale immersion-cooled Bitcoin mining hardware.
The company’s Engineering business segment also provides electricity distribution product design, manufacturing, and installation services primarily focused on large-scale commercial and governmental customers and serves a broad scope of clients across a wide range of markets, including data center, power generation, utility, water, industrial, and alternative energy. Products are custom built to client and industry specifications.
In December 2024, the company acquired E4A Solutions, LLC (‘E4A Solutions’), a provider of electrical engineering services to a diverse customer base of energy developers and data center operators. This acquisition adds to the company’s vertically integrated strategy by adding engineering expertise to service its own existing and future electrical infrastructure, as well as provide solutions and services to the rapidly growing market for electrical infrastructure.
Insurance
The company maintains property insurance coverage for its mining hardware, buildings, and infrastructure. This includes coverage for business interruption, earthquakes, flood and tornadoes. The company also maintains cybersecurity coverage, casualty, general liability, pollution and builders’ risk insurance policies. Each Custodian maintains limited insurance policies covering the pool of digital assets its custodies against certain events of loss, such as theft. The company does not carry additional insurance coverage on its Bitcoin holdings. The company engages its insurance broker annually to solicit underwriters to provide proposals to renew the company’s coverage or update its policies to meet its needs, prior to the policies’ expiration.
Suppliers
All the company’s miner purchases in 2024 were from MicroBT (MicroBT Electronics Technology Co., LTD, through its manufacturing affiliate, SuperAcme Technology (Hong Kong) Limited).
Global Logistics
Global supply chain logistics have continued to cause delays across all distribution channels. Similarly, the company has also experienced delays in certain miner delivery schedules and infrastructure development schedules due to constraints in the global supply chains for miners, electricity distribution equipment and construction materials. The company has effectively mitigated any delivery delays to prevent material impacts on its miner deployment schedule; however, there are no assurances that the company will be able to continue mitigating any such delivery delays in the future.
Additionally, the development and potential expansion of the company’s Facilities require large quantities of construction materials, specialized electricity distribution equipment and other component parts that can be difficult to source. To help mitigate global supply chain logistics and pricing concerns, the company has procured and hold many of the required materials. The company continues to monitor global supply chain developments and assess their potential impact on its expansion plans.
History
Riot Platforms, Inc. was founded in 2000.