Riot Platforms (RIOT) Stock Slides as Miner Offloads BTC to Pay the Bills

TLDR

• Riot Platforms sold 3,778 BTC in Q1 2026 for net proceeds of $289.5 million, at an average price of $76,626 per coin.
• The company produced 1,473 BTC during Q1, a 4% drop year-over-year, and held 15,680 BTC as of March 31.
• Deployed hash rate hit 42.5 EH/s, up 26% year-over-year, while all-in power costs fell 21% to 3.0 cents per kWh.
• Riot generated $21 million in total power credits during Q1, a 171% increase from the same period last year.
• Multiple analysts have cut price targets following Q4 2025 earnings, though most maintain buy-equivalent ratings.

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Riot Platforms sold more Bitcoin in Q1 2026 than it produced, offloading 3,778 BTC against output of just 1,473 coins. The sales, at an average price of $76,626, brought in $289.5 million in net proceeds. Bitcoin was trading around $66,867 at the time of reporting on Friday.

Riot Platforms, one of Nasdaq’s largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies, sold 3,778 BTC in the first quarter of 2026, generating net proceeds of approximately $289.5 million. The company’s total Bitcoin holdings decreased to 15,680 BTC by the end of the first quarter.… pic.twitter.com/Zt23bziDin

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 3, 2026

The company ended the quarter with 15,680 BTC on its balance sheet, down 18% from 19,223 coins a year earlier. That total includes 5,802 in restricted Bitcoin. Blockchain intelligence platform Arkham also flagged a separate 500 BTC outflow from a wallet it attributed to Riot on Thursday.

Riot Platforms, Inc., RIOT

Riot is not alone in selling. MARA Holdings, Genius Group, and Nakamoto Holdings collectively sold 15,501 BTC in the last week, with MARA accounting for the bulk. Energy costs are a key driver. Analyst Kadan Stadelmann pointed to the oil price shock linked to the Middle East conflict — which escalated in February — as a major factor pushing operational costs higher.

“Miners are forced to sell off their Bitcoin in an attempt to cover their operational costs,” Stadelmann said.

Hash Rate Climbs, Costs Fall

Despite the sales pressure, Riot’s mining infrastructure continued to grow. Deployed hash rate reached 42.5 exahashes per second at quarter-end, a 26% jump from 33.7 EH/s in Q1 2025. Average operating hash rate for the quarter was 36.4 EH/s, up 23% year-over-year.

Fleet efficiency improved to 20.2 joules per terahash, from 21.0 J/TH a year ago. All-in power costs came in at 3.0 cents per kilowatt-hour, down 21% from 3.8 cents in Q1 2025.

Riot generated $21 million in total power credits during the quarter. That breaks down to $13.5 million in curtailment credits and $7.5 million from ERCOT and MISO demand response programs — a 171% year-over-year increase.

Analyst Targets Trimmed After Q4

Following Q4 2025 earnings, several analysts trimmed price targets. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered its target to $29 from $31 but kept an Overweight rating. Needham cut to $24 from $30, citing weakness in the mining segment and higher expenses. H.C. Wainwright moved to $23 from $26 on weaker-than-expected full-year results.

Citizens held its Market Outperform rating with a $25 target, highlighting Riot’s Texas power capacity as a strategic asset for future leases.

Stadelmann added that less efficient miners are already going offline, which has contributed to the Bitcoin network’s hashrate dropping from 1,160 EH/s to around 990 EH/s since early March. Mining difficulty also fell on March 20 from 145 trillion to 133 trillion.

Riot also started AMD lease monetization in January as part of its HPC/AI data center expansion.

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