Riot Platforms, Inc. (RIOT) Stock Price & How to Invest

Riot Platforms is a Nasdaq-listed company whose core business is mining bitcoin: it runs large fleets of specialized computers (ASICs) that compete to validate transactions on the Bitcoin network and earn newly issued bitcoin plus fees as a reward. Riot is unusually vertically integrated for a miner, owning its Rockdale and Corsicana, Texas facilities, negotiating long-term low-cost power, and participating in Texas grid demand-response programs that pay it to curtail during peak demand. In Q1 2026 the company produced 1,473 bitcoin, down about 4% year over year, and ended the quarter with roughly 42.5 EH/s of deployed hash rate, up about 26% from a year earlier. Mining revenue was around $111.9 million, pressured by lower bitcoin prices and a roughly 24% jump in the global network hash rate that raised its average cost to mine to about $44,629 per coin (excluding depreciation).

The bigger story in 2026 is Riot's pivot toward AI and HPC infrastructure. Its Corsicana campus sits on 858 acres with about 1 gigawatt of ERCOT-approved power, of which roughly 400 megawatts runs bitcoin mining; Riot halted the planned 600 megawatt mining expansion and is instead marketing that capacity to hyperscale data center tenants. A new data center segment contributed about $33.2 million of revenue in Q1 2026, AMD doubled its contracted capacity with Riot from 25 to 50 megawatts, and Riot is building a roughly 335,430-square-foot facility (internally called Project Ditto) at an estimated $400 million. To help fund the transition, Riot sold 3,778 bitcoin in Q1 2026 for about $289.5 million in net proceeds and set up a $200 million secured revolving credit facility with Coinbase Credit. The company remains reported-loss-making, posting a net loss of roughly $500 million (about $1.44 per share) in Q1 2026, largely reflecting swings in the value of its bitcoin holdings.

The dominant risk is bitcoin price volatility, which drives mining profitability and the mark-to-market value of Riot's large treasury; Q1 2026's roughly $500 million net loss shows how sharply reported results can swing. Rising global network difficulty steadily increases the cost to mine each coin, squeezing margins even when Riot expands. The AI and HPC pivot is promising but unproven at scale, and it depends on signing hyperscale tenants and executing large, capital-intensive construction on time and on budget. Heavy capital spending, reliance on bitcoin sales and credit for liquidity, potential shareholder dilution from stock issuance, and regulatory or energy-policy shifts in Texas all add uncertainty. Concentrating power and operations in a single grid heightens exposure to local outages or rule changes.

21 analysts publish price targets on RIOT, averaging $29.66 against a $20.17 price as of August 2026, or +47.1%. The published targets run from $20.00 to $45.00, a wide spread, and the ratings split 20 buy, 1 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 6 raises and 3 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full RIOT forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Riot Platforms, Inc.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. Scaling and lowering the cost of bitcoin mining. Riot grew deployed hash rate to about 42.5 EH/s, up roughly 26% year over year, ranking it among the largest US public miners. The most optimistic published target, $45.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The dominant risk is bitcoin price volatility, which drives mining profitability and the mark-to-market value of Riot's large treasury; Q1 2026's roughly $500 million net loss shows how sharply reported results can swing. The most pessimistic target, $20.00, is roughly what RIOT is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on RIOT, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Riot Platforms, Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (Q1 2026 quarterly): ~$167 million (mining ~$112M, data center ~$33M)
• Bitcoin produced (Q1 2026): ~1,473 BTC, down ~4% year over year
• Deployed hash rate: ~42.5 EH/s, up ~26% year over year
• Bitcoin held (treasury): ~15,680 BTC (~$1.3 billion), ~5,800 restricted
• Net income (Q1 2026): ~-$500 million (~-$1.44 per share)
• Market cap: ~$10 billion (stock ~$25 per share)

Figures are approximate and tied to the asOf date; verify live numbers before acting. Riot does not trade on a meaningful price-to-earnings basis because it is reported-loss-making, so investors tend to value it on hash rate, bitcoin held, and power capacity instead of earnings. The stock is highly volatile (beta around 3), with a 52-week range of roughly $10.59 to $30.32, so the figures matter most as a gauge of how much the market is pricing bitcoin upside and the AI pivot rather than current profits.

If you want RIOT exposure as part of a larger bundle rather than directly, these ETFs hold it meaningfully. Weights are approximate and refresh quarterly.

These are the investment theses RIOT naturally fits into. Each links to a full theme guide listing every other stock that belongs and the ETFs commonly used as a passive proxy.

Other names that sit close to RIOT: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get RIOT exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it (IWN, VTWO), which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so RIOT sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where RIOT fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

Riot Platforms is one of the largest US public bitcoin miners, running roughly 42.5 EH/s of hash rate and holding about 15,680 bitcoin, while pivoting a large slice of its 1 gigawatt Corsicana, Texas campus toward AI and HPC data center leasing. If you believe both bitcoin mining stays viable and Riot can sign hyperscale tenants for its spare power, the question becomes position sizing and overlap with any crypto or data center exposure you already own, not timing; the risk is that bitcoin prices, rising network difficulty, and heavy capital spending keep the company loss-making on a reported basis.

Whether RIOT is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is RIOT a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the RIOT stock forecast.

For income investors, whether RIOT pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does RIOT pay a dividend? And to weigh RIOT against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: RIOT vs CLSK and RIOT vs COIN.