Bitfarms adds board member to deter Riot Platforms takeover

Amid the ongoing cold war between two major Bitcoin mining firms, Riot Platforms and Bitfarms, the latter has appointed a new board member to thwart attempts at a "hostile takeover."

On June 24, Riot Platform, which owns a 14.9% stake in Bitfarms, announced its intention to replace three members of Bitfarms’ board of directors with independent directors. This decision comes after the current board members blocked Riot’s attempt to increase its ownership to more than 15%.

At the same time, Riot had backtracked on its initial plan to acquire all Bitfarms common shares at US$2.30 per share, stating:

“[It] is clear that engaging with the incumbent Bitfarms Board on a potential combination is just not possible.”

On June 27, the Canadian Bitcoin ( BTC ) miner Bitfarms announced the appointment of Fanny Philip as an independent board member.

Following Philip’s appointment, four of the five board members are independent. In contrast, Riot intended to replace the original board members with three people “completely independent of Riot and Bitfarms” — John Delaney, Amy Freedman and Ralph Goehring.

Philip is a member of the Canadian Blockchain Consortium’s mining committee and the president of its Québec Chapter.

Riot Platforms did not respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Related: Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms reports record $211M Q1 net income

With growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and Bitcoin’s widespread adoption, investors are betting big on Bitcoin miners as demand for computation power skyrockets.

Owing to this demand, Bitcoin miner Hut 8 landed a $150 million investment on June 24 from Coatue Management, owned by billionaire Philippe Laffont.

Speaking about the $150 million investment, Laffont said Hut 8 is “well-positioned” to accelerate new compute capacity and “capitalize” on any opportunities that come from it.

“We are committed to supporting innovators advancing AI and believe that compute capacity is crucial to unlocking significant growth across the ecosystem.”

The completed transaction is anticipated on or before July 11 of this year. On June 21, Hut 8 filed the investment agreement with Coatue with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hut 8 is one of the largest public mining companies in terms of computing power. Its current market capitalization is valued at $1.1 billion.

Magazine: As Ethereum phishing gets harder, drainers move to TON and Bitcoin