Riot Platforms Increases Stake in Bitfarms Amidst Controversy

According to PANews, Riot Platforms announced on Wednesday that it has increased its stake in Bitfarms to 13.1% by purchasing nearly 6 million shares on the open market over the past week. This move comes amidst criticism from Riot's CEO, Jason Les, of Bitfarms' 'poison pill' plan. Les stated in a declaration that Bitfarms did not sincerely engage with them privately, but responded by implementing an off-market poison pill with a trigger threshold far below the conventional 20%. Last month, Riot attempted to acquire all shares of Bitfarms with a total share capital of about $950 million. Bitfarms rejected this proposal. Earlier this week, Bitfarms adopted a 'poison pill' plan, stating that if an entity accumulates more than 15% of Bitfarms' shares between June 20 and September 10, the company will issue new shares, diluting that entity's stake.