Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms increases stake in Bitfarms

The US mining company Riot Platforms announced that it had acquired one million shares in its Canadian competitor Bitfarms on Tuesday. This means that Riot, as the largest shareholder, now owns around 85.3 million Bitfarms shares. This corresponds to an 18.9 percent stake in the company.

Both companies are endeavouring to build new facilities and modernize existing ones. For example, Riot is planning the largest Bitcoin mining facility in the world and Bitfarms is expanding its facilities in the USA and Paraguay. The mining companies were able to maintain their turnover at a high level in the second quarter of this year despite the halving: Riot achieved a turnover of 70 million US dollars and Bitfarms 42 million US dollars.

In April, Riot made a takeover bid of USD 950 million for Bitfarms, starting a dispute between the two North American mining companies. This unsolicited offer was not satisfactory for the Canadian company, so Bitfarms thwarted the takeover attempt. Riot withdrew the offer, but now demanded three seats on Bitfarms' board in order to push ahead with a possible takeover.

One board member Riot wanted to replace is Bitfarms co-founder and chairman Nicolas Bonta. However, Bitfarms announced yesterday that Bonta will be replaced on the board by senior director Brian Howlett. In addition, newly appointed Bitfarms CEO Ben Gagnon is also joining the board.

This does not seem to have settled the disputes between the two mining companies. It remains to be seen how they will come to an agreement or whether Bitfarms will be ready for a takeover by its US competitor at some point.