Summary Riot Platforms remains highly dependent on Bitcoin mining, with 92% of Q2-25 revenue from BTC despite efforts to diversify. Profitability is weak: positive net income was solely due to BTC revaluation; core operations are unprofitable even with high BTC prices. The company shifted from HODLing to selling most mined BTC in Q2, signaling possible industry stress and the need to fund data center expansion. I maintain a 'hold' rating on RIOT, as mining economics remain challenging and upside is capped unless the BTC price surges further. A little over 5 months ago, I covered Riot Platforms ( RIOT ) for Seeking Alpha and declared the stock a viable trading ticker, but probably not something investors should hold for a long period of time. In the time since that piece, RIOT has actually performed reasonably well—beating both the broader market and the CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF ( WGMI ) over the last five and a half months: Data by YCharts While holding RIOT stock has not been as lucrative as simply owning Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) either directly on-chain or through the ETF wrapper, RIOT has beaten the market since mid-February. In this update, we'll look at key takeaways from the company's Q2-25 earnings report, the pivot from HODL-ing to selling production over the last three months, and whether Bitcoin mining profitability has improved with six-figure BTC prices. Q2-24 Earnings For the quarter ended June 2025, Riot Platforms reported $153 million in top-line revenue. While this was a 5% sequential decline from $161.4 in Q1, revenue was up 118% year-over-year from the same period in 2024. Revenue (000s) Q2-25 Q2-24 YoY Bitcoin Mining $140,889 $55,764 152.7% Engineering $10,576 $9,627 9.9% Other $1,523 $4,627 -67.1% Total $152,988 $70,018 118.5% BTC % of Total 92.1% 79.6% 15.6% Source: Riot Platforms, 10-Q Though Riot announced HPC data center intentions earlier this year and has subsequently hired a 'Chief Data Center Officer' to further those efforts, the company was even more reliant on Bitcoin mining for top line revenue in Q2-25 than it was in Q2-24; at $140.9 million in revenue from Bitcoin mining, Riot garnered over 92% of the company's revenue in the quarter from BTC. This was a 15.6% year-over-year increase from just under 80% BTC reliance in Q2-24. Engineering revenue came in at $10.6 million - up just shy of 10% year over year. 'Other' was down. The point is, the company still generally goes as Bitcoin goes, and the mining space continues to be an incredibly challenging business: Q2 COGS, 000s (Riot Platforms, 10-Q) RIOT did indeed report positive net income of $219.5 million in the quarter, but this was entirely dependent on a $470.8 million revaluation of Riot's enormous BTC treasure trove. Meaning, without increases in the value of the Bitcoin that Riot Platforms had already mined in prior quarters, the company's true net income would have almost certainly been negative in Q2, even with BTC in six-figure territory. Even if we were to take away a $158.1 million loss on a contract settlement and a $42.7 million change in value of derivative assets, RIOT would have still been negative in the quarter by over $50 million. It took $250.1 million in combined COGS, SG&A, and depreciation/amortization to generate $153 million in revenue. Bitcoin Treasury Shift What I do find to be quite interesting over the last three months is the fact that Riot shifted from HODLing all production for 13 straight months between February 2024 and March 2025. The company pivoted to selling most of its monthly production in April and continued that behavior through June: Monthly Revenue (Riot, Author's Chart) Over the last three months, Riot has realized $131.8 million in BTC sales. Prior to HODLing all production beginning in February of last year, Riot had been selling some of its monthly mining rewards through the entirety of 2023. To get a sense of how substantial this Bitcoin revenue has been for Riot between April and June, it took all of January through October 2023 for the company to reach the realized BTC sales revenue level it reached in Q2 nominally. Measured in BTC, it took 5,055 BTC to generate $131.5 million in realized revenue between January and October 2023. The company generated $131.8 million in realized sales from selling just 1,372 BTC last quarter. Despite the massive jump in average sales price from $26k to $96k per BTC in our sample above, it still wasn't enough to generate positive adjusted net income, taking away asset revaluation. The Mining Business is Still Brutal The true economics of mining continue to be quite poor when depreciation/amortization are included as all-in costs. Hash price remains near the new floor post-halving: USD/PHS/Day (HashRateIndex) This chart is the reason why Bitcoin miners haven't had the same parabolic pop that they had during the 2021 bull run. The daily revenue expected from mining per PHS is less than $60, and that has generally been the case since the block reward halving in April 2024. The fact that the BTC price has gone as high as $120k per coin hasn't alleviated margin pressure to the degree mining stock investors likely would have hoped. Global exahash continues its relentless rise: Data by YCharts More importantly, the hash rate is growing in line with Bitcoin's price. Thus, the explosive mining stock price rallies that we saw during the 2021 bull cycle - which generated immense profitability numbers due to global exahash not growing as quickly—have not manifested this time around. Closing Remarks During the last cycle, miners selling down their BTC stacks was an early warning that trouble was coming for the broader industry. While RIOT isn't tapping the company's BTC treasury stack yet, the fact that the company has shifted to selling nearly all monthly production for an entire quarter might be a signal worth considering. To be sure, data center Capex will need funding, and Riot's options are some combination of dilution, debt, and/or monetizing BTC. The latter of which might actually be the most prudent way to fund data center growth. It's also interesting that Riot Platforms has begun reducing its holdings of Bitfarms ( BITF ) stock in recent weeks. Many will likely remember the failed takeover attempt of Bitfarms by Riot last year. That Riot is now reducing its Bitfarms position is not exactly a ringing endorsement for the current state of the BTC mining industry from where I sit. All this said, I'll reiterate my 'hold' for RIOT. If the price of BTC continues to rise, RIOT should benefit due to how much coin the company holds. However, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that we're close to BTC's high for the year if we haven't seen it already.
