CIFR vs RIOT: Cipher Digital and Riot Platforms Compared
Last Updated: September 15, 2026
CIFR vs RIOT now compares two data center developers that still mine bitcoin. In the quarter ended June 30, 2026, Cipher Digital reported $24.8 million of revenue and about 346 BTC mined, while Riot Platforms reported $174.2 million of revenue, 1,587 BTC produced and 11,380 BTC held, according to their SEC filings.
Both companies trade on Nasdaq, both started as bitcoin miners in Texas, and both are turning power sites into leased capacity for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) tenants. The difference is scale and mix. Cipher, renamed from Cipher Mining to Cipher Digital Inc. on February 20, 2026, mines at one site and has signed large HPC leases that have not yet produced revenue. Riot runs a much larger mining fleet, an engineering business and its first data center leases. Mining revenue for both still depends on the block subsidy, which the bitcoin halving cuts roughly every four years. This comparison uses only the latest 10-Q filings, earnings releases and company presentations. It shows no share prices, because a quote that is out of date by the time you read it is worse than none. For bitcoin price exposure without company-specific risk, our perpetual futures primer and bitcoin leverage trading guide cover the alternative.
CIFR vs RIOT: Q2 2026 Fundamentals Side by Side
| Criterion | CIFR (Cipher Digital) | RIOT (Riot Platforms) |
|---|---|---|
| Business today | Data center developer that evolved from a pure-play bitcoin miner; renamed Cipher Digital in February 2026 | Company built around large power assets, with bitcoin mining, engineering services and data center leasing |
| Revenue, Q2 2026 | $24.8 million, all from bitcoin mining, down from $43.6 million a year earlier | $174.2 million: $113.7M mining, $37.3M engineering and $23.2M data center revenue |
| Net loss, Q2 2026 | $267.5 million, including a $150.5 million loss on the fair value of warrants | $237.2 million, against net income of $219.5 million in Q2 2025 |
| Bitcoin mined, Q2 2026 | About 346 BTC, all at the 207 MW Odessa site in Texas | 1,587 BTC, up from 1,426 BTC in the same quarter of 2025 |
| Bitcoin held, June 30, 2026 | About 646 BTC, down from about 1,433 BTC at the end of 2025 | 11,380 BTC, of which 5,821 BTC were held as collateral |
| Hashrate | About 11.6 EH/s total at Odessa, with fleet efficiency of about 17.2 J/TH | 44.4 EH/s deployed at June 30, 2026; 37.2 EH/s average operating in Q2 |
| Power cost and cost per coin | Fixed-price Odessa power of about 2.8 cents per kWh; no cost-per-bitcoin metric reported | $49,912 to mine one bitcoin before miner depreciation; all-in power 3.2 to 5.2 cents per kWh by site |
| HPC and AI leases | 700 MW of contracted gross HPC capacity and about $11.4 billion of contracted revenue on 10–15-year terms | 50 MW leased to AMD at Rockdale, plus a 20-year, 191 MW lease with a frontier AI lab worth about $9.1 billion |
| Worked example: a $10,000 move in BTC | Changes the value of 646 BTC held by about $6.5 million, or 26% of Q2 revenue | Changes the value of 11,380 BTC held by $113.8 million, or 65% of Q2 revenue |
Data as of September 15, 2026, from the latest SEC filings for the quarter ended June 30, 2026: Cipher Digital 10-Q and business update, both filed August 4, 2026; Riot Platforms 10-Q and Q2 2026 results release, both filed August 10, 2026. Hashrate and cost labels follow each company's own definitions and are not directly comparable. The worked example is a calculation, not a price forecast.
What Cipher Digital Does Now
Cipher's 10-Q describes a company that has "intentionally evolved from a pure-play bitcoin miner into a vertically integrated data center development and operations platform." Mining now happens at one location: the 207 MW Odessa facility in Texas, which buys power at a fixed price under a power purchase agreement. The August 2026 business update puts Odessa at about 11.6 EH/s, with about 346 BTC mined in the second quarter.
The rest of the portfolio is being converted or built for HPC tenants. The 300 MW Black Pearl facility in Wink, Texas, previously used for bitcoin mining, is being retrofitted for an HPC tenant, with phased delivery expected to start in 2026. The Barber Lake facility is under construction for Fluidstack, with an expected commencement date of September 2026, and another existing site is being built for a hyperscaler tenant. Six further sites are expected to be built out for HPC.
The income statement shows the cost of that transition. Q2 2026 mining revenue was $24.8 million, compensation and benefits reached $42.4 million, interest expense was $66.7 million, and a $150.5 million change in the fair value of warrant liabilities pushed the net loss to $267.5 million. Bitcoin holdings fell from about 1,433 BTC at December 31, 2025, to about 646 BTC at June 30, 2026, with a fair value of $37.8 million.
What Riot Platforms Does Now
Riot's 10-Q describes it as a vertically integrated digital infrastructure company "principally engaged in developing and optimizing its large-scale power assets." It had 1,292 MW of power capacity at June 30, 2026: 700 MW at Rockdale and 400 MW at Corsicana in Texas, plus 192 MW in Kentucky. Deployed hashrate rose to 44.4 EH/s from 38.5 EH/s at the end of 2025.
Mining still produces most of the revenue, but its economics weakened. Bitcoin mining revenue fell to $113.7 million from $140.9 million a year earlier, which Riot attributes to lower average bitcoin prices and higher global network hashrate. The production value of one mined bitcoin was $71,667, down from $98,800, while the cost to mine one bitcoin before miner depreciation rose to $49,912 because of higher power costs and the Kentucky expansion.
The data center side is growing. Riot completed delivery of the initial 25 MW of critical IT capacity to AMD, with a second 25 MW under construction, and in August 2026 signed a 20-year lease with a frontier AI lab for 191 MW at Rockdale, expected to generate about $9.1 billion in total contract revenue over the initial term. The company ended June with over $1.2 billion in liquid assets, including $548.9 million in cash. Riot published its final monthly production update for December 2025 and now reports quarterly.
How to Read Miner Filings Before Comparing Stocks
Filings from bitcoin miners use different labels for similar numbers, so a like-for-like comparison takes some care.
- Separate mining from leasing revenue. Riot's $174.2 million includes $23.2 million of data center revenue; Cipher's HPC leases had not yet produced revenue in Q2 2026. Contracted lease revenue is a future figure that depends on delivery dates.
- Check what "hashrate" means. Riot reports deployed capacity and average operating hashrate separately. Cipher's presentation gives a single total for Odessa. Deployed capacity is always higher than what runs on average.
- Compare cost metrics only when definitions match. Riot's $49,912 excludes miner depreciation; including depreciation, its self-mining cost of revenue was $143.8 million for 1,587 BTC. Cipher reports a power price, not a cost per coin.
- Look at the bitcoin balance and how much is pledged. Riot held 11,380 BTC, but 5,821 BTC served as collateral. Cipher cut its holdings by more than half in six months.
- Read the non-operating lines. Warrant revaluations, interest expense and changes in bitcoin fair value can move quarterly net income by hundreds of millions of dollars, as both Q2 2026 results show.
- Track the reporting calendar. Riot stopped monthly updates after December 2025, so new operating data now arrives quarterly through the 10-Q and earnings release.
Mining revenue also depends on the block subsidy, which halves roughly every four years; the guide to the bitcoin halving explains how that reshapes miner margins.
CIFR, RIOT and Bitcoin Exposure on EVEDEX
EVEDEX does not list CIFR or RIOT, and it is not a stock broker. Its five US stock perpetuals are TSLA, COIN, MSTR, CRCL and SPCX, none of them a miner. What it does offer is direct exposure to the asset that drives mining revenue: the BTC-USD perpetual contract, with up to 200x leverage on positions up to $50,000 notional, 0.015% maker and 0.045% taker fees, and funding calculated every 8 hours and charged hourly. A perpetual captures only the bitcoin price. It carries none of the power contracts, lease revenue, warrant dilution or balance-sheet risks that shape a miner's share price, and it can be liquidated. The drawbacks are specific: no mining stocks, no spot bitcoin, no options and 52 pairs in total. For the mechanics of a leveraged BTC position, see the guide to bitcoin leverage trading and the primer on perpetual futures. Perpetual futures carry a high risk of loss.
