Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms has significantly expanded its BTC reserves. This week, the company acquired 5,117 BTC for $510 million. This purchase, at an average price of $99,669 per Bitcoin, brings Riot's total reserves to 16,728 BTC.
The acquisition was financed with proceeds from the company's 0.75% convertible senior notes due 2030 and existing cash reserves.
Riot’s Bitcoin Holdings Hit 16,728 BTC
Riot’s recent acquisition of Bitcoin reflects a broader trend toward treating cryptocurrency as a strategic reserve asset. The plan is in line with recent market moves by other companies and governments.
MicroStrategy, a pioneer in the use of Bitcoin as a corporate treasury reserve, currently holds over 423,650 BTC. Since November, the company has made BTC purchases worth over $15 billion.
Similarly, Marathon Digital has accumulated 40,435 BTC, positioning itself as another leader in digital asset mining and holding.
Public Companies With Largest Bitcoin Reserves. Source: CoinGecko
Bitcoin as a Store of Value: Growing Adoption by Governments Around the World
Governments are also exploring Bitcoin as a reserve currency. Pennsylvania has introduced the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act, which proposes allocating up to 10% of its $7 billion in state funds to Bitcoin.
Texas is considering legislation to allow tax payments in Bitcoin, while Bhutan has been quietly mining Bitcoin since 2019, accumulating over 12,000 BTC. This week, the city of Vancouver approved a Bitcoin reserve proposal, and a Russian lawmaker introduced a similar proposal in Moscow.
These examples illustrate a growing confidence in Bitcoin’s ability to serve as a store of value and hedge against inflation. A 2024 study suggests that there is empirical evidence to support this notion, but as adoption increases, its role as a store of value may diminish.
The results, based on monthly data from August 2010 to January 2023, indicate that Bitcoin returns increase significantly after a positive inflationary shock, corroborating empirical evidence that Bitcoin can act as an inflation hedge. However, we note that Bitcoin’s inflation hedge property is sensitive to the price index — it only holds for CPI shocks — and to the period of analysis — the hedge property comes mainly from sample periods before BTC’s institutional adoption increased (“early days”). Thus, Bitcoin’s inflation hedge property is context-specific and is likely declining as adoption increases, wrote researcher Harold Rodriguez.
However, Riot Platforms’ decision to dedicate substantial resources to Bitcoin reserves signals confidence in the cryptocurrency’s future and its strategic alignment with a global shift toward digital reserve assets.
In a closely related development, activist investor Starboard Value has acquired a significant stake in Riot Platforms. Starboard is advocating for Riot to repurpose some of its Bitcoin mining facilities into hyperscale data centers to serve large-scale computing customers.
Riot acknowledged ongoing discussions with Starboard, noting its work to increase shareholder value.
The article Riot Platforms Increases Bitcoin Reserves with US$510 Million appeared first on BeInCrypto Brasil.
