Riot abandoned its bid to purchase all of Bitfarms’ shares at $2.30 a share, citing difficulties working with the company’s present board. Riot Platforms and Bitfarms, two of the biggest Bitcoin mining companies, are engaged in a bitter cold war. Bitfarms has named a new board member to prevent any kind of “hostile takeover.” Riot Platform, which has a 14.9% share in Bitfarms, declared on June 24 that it intended to add three independent directors to the board of directors of Bitfarms in place of three current members.
This decision was made in response to Riot’s attempt to raise its ownership to above 15% being blocked by the incumbent board members.
Riot said at the same time that it had changed its mind about acquiring all of Bitfarm’s common shares for US$2.30 a share, saying: “[It] is evident that discussing a possible combination with the current Bitfarms Board is simply not feasible.” Fanny Philip was named an independent board member by Bitfarms, a Canadian Bitcoin miner, on June 27. Four of the five board members are independent as of Philip’s nomination.
On the other hand, Riot planned to appoint three individuals who are “wholly independent of Riot and Bitfarms” to the board in place of the original members. Ralph Goehring, Amy Freedman, and John Delaney
Philip is the president of the Québec Chapter of the Canadian Blockchain Consortium and a member of its mining committee. Due to the increasing popularity of Bitcoin and the growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI), investors are placing large bets on Bitcoin miners as the need for processing power rises dramatically. Due to this demand, billionaire Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management offered Bitcoin miner Hut 8 a $150 million investment on June 24. Regarding the $150 million investment, Laffont stated that Hut 8 is “well-positioned” to take advantage of any possibilities that arise and to speed the addition of more compute capacity.
“We believe that compute capacity is crucial to unlocking significant growth across the ecosystem, and we are committed to supporting innovators advancing AI.” The acquisition is expected to be completed by July 11th, this year, at the latest. Hut 8 submitted the investment agreement with Coatue to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on June 21. By computational power, Hut 8 is among the biggest mining firms that are publicly traded. It is currently valued at $1.1 billion based on its market capitalization.