Bitcoin Miner Riot Blockchain Ends Week Up 50% After Tapping 2-Year Highs

As bitcoin continues surging toward record highs, bitcoin mining companies ride its coattails. 

Shares of the publicly traded bitcoin mining company Riot Blockchain rose 50% this week, trading hands just below $6.00 at week’s end. Bitcoin gained nearly 17% over the same period. 

Riot shares surged even higher in early hours Friday, reaching $6.60, a level not seen since early September 2018. 

CoinDesk reported that the Castle Rock, Colo.-based firm posted its lowest per share loss in Q3 since the company fully deployed its cryptocurrency mining infrastructure, over two years ago. 

Public mining companies like Riot that emphasize their bitcoin reserves have seen strongly positive reactions from the market, said Ethan Vera, co-founder of Seattle-based mining company Luxor Technology. “Companies that liquidate to fiat every day didn’t see as strong of gains,” he said.

Riot continues to outperform bitcoin through 2020, with investors enjoying a 390% year-to-date return compared to bitcoin’s 168% gain. 

The firm plans to continue expanding its already aggressively growing mining capacity through 2021 and beyond, reporting a 450% increase in hash power for Q3 over the same period in 2019, reaching 556 petahash per second (PH/s). 

“With the current market momentum many of the mining companies who have never broken a profit will likely report positive EBITDA heading into 2021,” Vera said.