Riot Platforms sold 475 BTC for $38.8 million in April, trying to enhance liquidity amid adverse mining conditions. The sale coincided with Bitcoin’s halving event, which reduced mining rewards and resulted in a 13% decrease in production. Rising network difficulty continues to challenge miner profitability. Riot’s shares fell 5.84% following the announcement.
Riot Platforms has sold $38.8 million worth of Bitcoin in April as the second-largest publicly traded Bitcoin miner by market cap aims to bolster liquidity amidst challenging market conditions. The Castle Rock, Colorado-based firm offloaded 475 Bitcoin at an average price of $81,731 per coin according to the operations update released on Monday.
In April, Riot managed to mine 463 of the sold tokens, while the remaining 12 Bitcoin were sourced from its reserves. Currently, the company holds 19,211 BTC on its balance sheet, valued at roughly $1.8 billion with today’s market pricing. CEO Jason Les stated, “During April, we strategically opted to sell our monthly bitcoin production to finance ongoing growth and operations,” emphasising that this approach lessens the dependency on equity financing, thus curbing shareholder dilution.
This move comes amid increasing pressures on miners following Bitcoin’s fourth halving event in mid-April last year, which halved the block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Although halving events tend to stimulate Bitcoin price appreciation historically, they often make mining operations significantly less profitable, as has been the case for Riot, which saw a 13% drop in production month-over-month despite maintaining a consistent hash rate.
Moreover, rising network difficulty has been eroding miner margins. Data from CoinWarz indicates that by May 4, the average mining difficulty had surged to 119 trillion hashes, a 35% year-on-year increase. Even though Bitcoin’s value has appreciated by 47% over the last year and was recently trading near $94,000, it remained below its peak of $109,000 in January.
This slight decline has pressured miners, who heavily rely on sustained high prices to manage escalating energy and infrastructure costs. Notably, on April 7, Bitcoin miners recorded a combined sale of 15,000 BTC, marking the third largest single-day outflow in 2025, according to CryptoQuant.
Following these developments, Riot shares took a hit, falling 5.84% on Monday, closing at $7.90. Analysts are now watching closely as the broader mining landscape adjusts in response to these formidable challenges.
