Riot Platforms Surges Amid Bitcoin's Breakout to $72,000
Riot Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:RIOT) is gaining momentum on Thursday morning alongside the broader crypto sector, as Bitcoin broke above key resistance to trade past $72,000.
The stock's increase is largely attributed to its high-beta proxy status for spot Bitcoin prices. As one of the premier public digital infrastructure operators, Riot's equity tends to mirror the performance of Bitcoin.
Riot released its second-quarter financial results on Aug. 10, showing $174.2 million in total revenue, a 14% year-over-year increase. The growth was driven by $23.2 million from its expanding data center business, which helped maintain over $1.2 billion in liquid assets despite net loss pressures from higher all-in mining costs.
The company also announced a major 20-year lease agreement with AI firm Anthropic for 191 megawatts of power at its Rockdale, Texas campus. This deal adds to an existing agreement with AMD, securing approximately $9.8 billion in long-term contracted revenue. CEO Jason Les emphasized that these deals mark a defining moment in Riot's evolution into a large-scale data center developer.