Riot Platforms Sold 9,665 Bitcoin in H1 2026 to Fund a Data Center Pivot Anchored by a $9.1 Billion Anthropic Lease

Riot Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT), a vertically integrated digital infrastructure company spanning Bitcoin mining, engineering, and large-scale data center development, disclosed on August 18, 2026 that it sold 4,300 BTC in the second quarter, bringing its first-half 2026 total to 9,665 BTC sold. The sales drew down one of the industry’s largest corporate Bitcoin treasuries, leaving Riot with 11,380 BTC as of June 30, still worth roughly $730 million at current prices. Riot is funding an increasingly ambitious pivot into AI and high-performance computing infrastructure, anchored by a 20-year, 191-megawatt lease with Anthropic projected to generate approximately $9.1 billion in revenue through 2048.

Mining Operations Stay Active Even as the Treasury Shrinks

Riot has not stepped back from Bitcoin mining while selling down its holdings. The company mined 1,587 BTC in Q2 2026 at an average cost of $49,912 per coin excluding depreciation, contributing to quarterly revenue of $174.2 million, up 14% year over year. Deployed hashrate reached 42.5 exahashes per second by the end of Q1, a 26% increase from the same period in 2025. Of the 11,380 BTC Riot still holds, 5,821 BTC, just over half, sits pledged as collateral against existing loans and is not freely available to sell or move without first satisfying lenders. Riot ended the quarter with $548.9 million in cash, of which $77.5 million was restricted, and total liquid assets of approximately $1.2 billion, giving the company meaningful flexibility as it funds both ongoing mining operations and its data center build-out simultaneously.

The Anthropic Lease Anchors a Broader AI Infrastructure Build-Out

The 191-megawatt Anthropic lease at Riot’s Rockdale, Texas campus represents the company’s most consequential strategic move to date, and it did not arrive in isolation. Riot previously signed AMD as an anchor HPC tenant at Rockdale, and the company doubled AMD’s footprint with a 25-megawatt expansion after initial capacity delivery validated the platform. At its Corsicana, Texas campus, Riot has filed plans for a roughly $400 million, 335,000-square-foot data center building known as Project Ditto, and is evaluating converting up to 600 megawatts of previously mining-dedicated capacity to AI and HPC workloads. The company has also expanded its Corsicana land position to roughly 850 to 890 acres, providing runway for multiple future data center phases. Riot has already stood up its first data center revenue streams, including tenant fit-out and operating lease income, marking what CEO Jason Les has called a definitive inflection point toward becoming an active, revenue-generating data center operator rather than a pure Bitcoin miner.

An Industry-Wide Shift, With Riot Selling Less Aggressively Than Some Peers

Riot’s bitcoin sales sit within a broader industry realignment. Marathon Digital, the largest publicly traded miner by treasury size, sold approximately 23,093 BTC for roughly $1.6 billion during the first half of 2026, redeploying proceeds toward debt reduction and growth initiatives. Publicly listed miners collectively sold more than 32,000 BTC in the first quarter of 2026 alone, a figure that surpassed their combined full-year 2025 sales. Some miners have gone further than Riot: Bitdeer Technologies now holds no bitcoin reserves at all, while Cleanspark has reorganized its leadership team specifically to accelerate AI initiatives. Against that backdrop, Riot’s 11,380 BTC treasury keeps it among the larger holders even after two consecutive quarters of selling. Wall Street has taken notice of the pivot’s potential: activist investor Starboard Value has estimated Riot’s AI and HPC expansion could be worth up to $21 billion, a figure that helps explain why the company remains willing to part with bitcoin it once treated as a core balance sheet asset. If data center income scales as projected, Riot may have less need to continue selling bitcoin in the back half of 2026.

Strategic Investment Summary

• H1 2026 Bitcoin Sales: Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) sold 9,665 BTC across the first half of 2026 (4,300 BTC in Q2 alone), leaving 11,380 BTC in treasury as of June 30, with 5,821 BTC pledged as loan collateral.
• Mining Still Active: Riot mined 1,587 BTC in Q2 2026 at an average cost of $49,912 per coin, generating $174.2 million in quarterly revenue (up 14% YoY), with deployed hashrate reaching 42.5 EH/s by Q1 end, up 26% year over year.
• $9.1 Billion Anthropic Lease: A 20-year, 191-megawatt lease with Anthropic at Riot’s Rockdale, Texas campus is projected to generate approximately $9.1 billion in revenue through 2048, anchoring the company’s AI and HPC infrastructure pivot.
• Corsicana Expansion: Riot has filed plans for a roughly $400 million, 335,000-square-foot data center building (Project Ditto) at its Corsicana campus and is evaluating converting up to 600 MW of mining capacity to AI and HPC workloads across an 850- to 890-acre site.
• Industry Context: Marathon sold approximately 23,093 BTC for $1.6 billion in H1 2026; industry-wide miner BTC sales exceeded 32,000 in Q1 2026 alone; Bitdeer now holds zero BTC reserves while Cleanspark has restructured leadership toward AI.
• Analyst Valuation: Activist investor Starboard Value has estimated Riot’s AI and HPC expansion could be worth up to $21 billion, underscoring the strategic rationale behind the company’s continued bitcoin sales to fund the pivot.

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