Riot Platforms Prepays $200M Coinbase Loan, Unlocking Pledged Bitcoin as Jones Trading Starts at Buy

RIOT has fully prepaid its $200 million Coinbase Credit secured term loan and terminated the credit agreement, releasing the lender's security interest in the bitcoin, USDC and cash pledged against it. Riot's 8-K, filed September 25, says the full voluntary prepayment was completed on September 21, and no early-termination fee applied because the prepayment fell after the four-month anniversary of the original maturity date. The facility carried a fixed 6.15% rate, so a fully drawn balance cost roughly $12.3 million a year in interest.

The collateral is the part investors are watching. As of June 30 Riot had pledged 5,821 BTC, valued at about $340.7 million at the time and roughly 51% of its 11,380 BTC holdings. Some coverage headlined a larger dollar figure for the freed coins, which depends on the bitcoin price used, but the count is what the filing-era disclosures support. The open question in that coverage is whether Riot sells any of the unencumbered bitcoin or keeps it as a treasury asset.

The balance-sheet cleanup lands as Riot leans further into AI and high-performance computing hosting. Jones Trading initiated coverage on September 28 with a Buy rating and a $30 target, against a share price near $23 and a Street range of $22 to $45, pointing to the AI/HPC pivot and $33.2 million of first-quarter AI/HPC revenue while noting the company remains unprofitable. The stock's four-year high came earlier, in May, after Riot announced a nuclear power partnership with Terrestrial Energy whose first facilities are not expected before the early 2030s. Watch for any bitcoin disposition in the next production update and for progress converting AI/HPC leases into revenue.