Riot Platforms moved 500 BTC, or about $30.7 million, to NYDIG Custody, according to Arkham on-chain data. Naturally, this has led to rumors of a possible acquisition.
Interestingly, although these transfers usually come before a sale, this movement does not guarantee that Riot has sold Bitcoin (BTC).
However, it will be guaranteed that the sale will take place if Bitcoin later leaves the NYDIG to an exchange or OTC desk.
But if the money is still in custody, it can only be a part of regular asset management, such as putting assets up for future use, renegotiating savings contracts, or arranging cash collateral.
Bitcoin Reserves also change with mining companies
According to the latest BitcoinTreasuries.NET data, RiotPlatform had 19,368 BTC at the end of 2025. However, after trading in January and April 2026, Riot currently has 15,680 BTC.
This is also related to the company recently reported revenue of $647.4 million. This is a 72% increase compared to the $376.7 million recorded in 2024.
Meanwhile, other things Bitcoin (BTC) Mining companies, such as Hut 8 Mining Corp., which held 10,667 BTC in November 2025, saw its holdings drop to 10,278 BTC at press time.
In addition, Mara Holdings, Inc. it started the year with 53,822 Bitcoin in February 2026, but it dropped to 36,303 Bitcoin. Finally, by the end of 2025, Core Scientific had 2,537 BTC, but it is currently down to 547 BTC.
Naturally, both businesses and Bitcoin mining executives have been complaining about changes in the mining process.
The evolution of Bitcoin mining in 2026
The graph below shows the correlation between Bitcoin price, slowness, mining difficulty, and hashrate between July 2025 and July 2026.
Taken together, these indicators explain why the mining sector has been experiencing financial difficulties and why some miners are transferring or locking up a portion of their Bitcoin holdings.
It is clear from the graph that mining became more profitable in the second half of 2025, which caused the hashrate of the network to increase rapidly from 850 EH/s to 1.08 ZH/s. But in 2026, things started to change.
By February, the price of Bitcoin had dropped from $120,000 to about $65,000. However, the increase in hashrates and the increasing number of mining operations made mining more traditional. As a result, many inefficient miners start shutting down their rigs as mining was not profitable.
Current events
And now, as the hashrate has dropped by about 15% from the peak and mining profits have been under constant pressure. This has led miners to better manage their Bitcoin reserves instead of holding onto all of their earnings.
With miners shutting down machines or reducing operations, the network’s overall hashrate drops from 1.08 ZH/s to around 930–950 EH/s.
All in all, Riot’s recent transfer of 500 BTC to NYDIG Custody makes sense due to the company’s growth.
Brief Summary
- Although the current transfer does not indicate a potential sale, Riot Platforms Bitcoin Holdings has dropped from 19,368 BTC to 15,680 BTC.
- Bitcoin’s price, rapid decline, mining problem, and network hashrate in 2026 acted in a big way, forcing companies to change their BTC reserves.
