Riot Platforms sold $200 million of bitcoin in 2025's last two months

• Riot Platforms sold 1,818 bitcoin in December and 383 in November, generating approximately $200 million and reducing its BTC balance to 18,005 coins.
• Matthew Sigel of asset manager VanEck said the sales could fully fund the first phase of Riot’s Corsicana AI data center build.

Riot Platforms (RIOT), a publicly listed bitcoin mining company that develops and operates large-scale data centers, stepped up its bitcoin selling at year-end, offloading 1,818 BTC ($161.6 million) and 383 BTC ($37 million) in November. The sales reduced Riot’s bitcoin balance to 18,005 BTC by the end of 2025.

While bitcoin miner sales of coins can occur for various reasons, Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, suggested that funding for the company's AI build-out could be at play. The amount sold, he noted, is “roughly the entire capex Riot has guided for the first 112 MW core/shell build at Corsicana, targeting completion in Q1 2027. In other words, one winter of BTC sales equals funding Phase 1 of the AI data center pivot.”

Sigel added that the AI trade and bitcoin are increasingly linked, arguing that miners have been among the largest marginal sellers of BTC as they fund AI related capex, especially when credit conditions tighten. It could be one of many reasons for bitcoin's decline during 2025.

Riot shares are lower by 2% on Tuesday alongside a 1.2% retreat in the price of bitcoin to $92,500.

• KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
• This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
• Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
• Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
• Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.

• Bitcoin dropped to around $91,530 from $93,750 after a third failed attempt to break above $94,500 in five weeks
• The decline took it back into a trading range that characterized December's pricing.
• The broader altcoin market saw steeper losses, with PENGU losing 6.5% and XRP falling 3.5% with memecoins and privacy coins the worst-performing sectors.

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