Riot Frees $494 Million in Bitcoin From Coinbase Loan: Will It Sell?

Riot Platforms has repaid a $200 million Coinbase loan, releasing 5,821 bitcoin it had locked up as security. At today’s price of about $84,800, those coins are worth roughly $494 million.

Riot, a Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin (BTC) miner, now controls that stack without restriction. It is also spending heavily to turn its Texas sites into artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.

What Riot’s Bitcoin-Backed Coinbase Loan Repayment Freed

The loan worked much like a pawn deal. Riot handed Bitcoin, USDC (a dollar-pegged digital token), and cash to Coinbase Custody as security.

Riot cleared the debt and interest on September 21, according to an 8-K filed Friday. An 8-K is a report US-listed companies must file after major events. Coinbase’s claim on the pledged assets ended the same day, and Riot paid no early repayment fee.

The released coins made up just over half of the 11,380 Bitcoin Riot held on June 30. However, the filing does not say how Riot raised the cash or what it plans for the coins.

Why Riot’s Locked Bitcoin Kept Changing

Before the payoff, only 5,559 of Riot’s coins were free to use, its June quarterly report shows. If its holdings have not changed since, the payoff roughly doubles that pool.

The number of locked coins rose and fell with Bitcoin’s price. When the price drops, each coin covers less of the debt, so Riot had to hand over more.

That happened in February. A price slide forced Riot to add 1,825 coins, lifting its pledge from 3,977 at the end of 2025 to 5,802, its annual report shows.

The rule also worked the other way. When prices rose, the loan agreement let Riot ask for some coins back without repaying. However, Coinbase had the final say on the math.

Instead, Riot repaid the full $200 million, seven months before the loan’s April 2027 due date. The loan carried a fixed 6.15% interest rate.

Riot Has Been Selling More Bitcoin Than It Mines

Riot’s recent record shows heavy selling. In the first quarter, it sold 3,778 Bitcoin for $289.5 million while mining 1,473, its production update shows.

The drawdown continued. Riot’s holdings fell from 15,680 to 11,380 coins in the second quarter, even as it mined 1,587. BeInCrypto reported in August that the miner was funding its AI buildout partly through those sales.

That buildout is large. In August, Riot signed a 20-year, $9.1 billion lease for 191 megawatts of computing capacity at its Rockdale, Texas, campus. The tenant is described only as a leading frontier AI lab.

Riot has other funding lined up, though. Morgan Stanley provided a $573 million interim loan for early construction, while a longer-term credit backstop is being finalized, Riot’s second-quarter results show.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price has climbed since June 30, when the pledged coins were worth $340.7 million.

On the market, RIOT shares closed Friday at $23, down 2%. The stock lost about 3% over five days but remains up roughly 82% this year.

Riot’s next quarterly report will show whether the freed bitcoin stayed on its books.